Jose Quintana was roughed up for the third time in his last four starts in Friday’s 4-2 loss to Atlanta, but the left-hander and manager Carlos Mendoza refused to sound the alarm about his recent performance.
After allowing three homers in the third inning and with a 7.84 ERA in his last four outings, Quintana said Friday’s outing “wasn’t good” but added that his stuff feels good.
And Mendoza added that he was “not concerned.”
“He needs to limit long innings and hard contact,” Mendoza said. “I thought the stuff was there. I’m not worried about him.
Others may be.
After a good start to the season, Quintana quickly hit difficult times.
Unlike his previous outing where he was hammered for eight runs in just 2 ²/₃ innings in Tampa Bay, Quintana was hurt Friday by some quick – but powerful – damage from Atlanta.
It all happened in the top of the third in a scoreless game with three swings of the bat.
Quintana retired six of the first seven batters he faced and after allowing a single to ex-Met Travis d’Arnaud to open the third, he got a double play from Orlando Arcia.
And then things fell apart, as Quintana allowed three homers the rest of the inning, as many as he had all season in 36 ¹/₃ innings.
Ronald Acuna Jr. began the damage by smashing a colossal 461-foot home run to dead center on a 3-2 lead for the game’s first run.
Ozzie Albies followed with a blast into the seats in left on Quintana’s next pitch.
A walk to Austin Riley extended the inning and after a visit from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, Quintana then gave up his third home run of the inning, this one to Matt Olson, which was the only pitch he regretted .
The two-run shot to center gave Atlanta a 4-0 lead, more than enough to beat an anemic Mets offense.
It was the first time in nearly two years that Quintana allowed three homers in a game, let alone an inning.
“It’s frustrating because I felt good,” Quintana said. “If I limit the damage to one or two runs, we have a good chance of coming back.”
Quintana added that he would look for more consistency in his next outing, although he wasn’t too discouraged.
“Today the results were not good on the line, but they were not bad like the last one,” Quintana said. “I need to execute better.”
New York Post
