[ad_1]
The Cubs gained a solid reputation thanks to their solid second period and after defeating the Pirates 8 to 3 on Sunday, they completed the sweep of their first series since star formation and are looking to get more space in the NL. Central between them and the other four teams.
But in the first three rounds, the Cubs and starter Jose Quintana seemed to let go of the third game of this series.
Quintana did not score the Pirates goals in the first two innings, but in the third set, he conceded three consecutive singles, launched a wild pitch, allowed a sacrificial volley and conceded a double, canceling thus the 1-0 lead that the Cubs had established. the second round on Robel Garcia's double.
But the difference in Sunday's game was how Quintana launched afterwards. He launched three more scoreless innings, completing a quality start of 90 shots and even contributed a RBI single to the fourth.
"He's always going out there and he's competing, he's so focused," Kris Bryant said of Quintana after the match. "He does not have enough credit for what he does."
Prior to Quintana's single, Garcia scored twice and Pirates manager Clint Hurdle decided to take David Bote with Quintana at the helm for a safe exit. Instead, Quintana pushed Trevor Williams' quick four-sided ball on the right court, allowing Garcia to score in second place and reduce Pittsburgh's lead to 3-2.
Quintana had already started a scoreless goal in the fourth inning, but he gave two more after his single RBI. The shot was a timely boost of confidence.
"I felt very good, to finally get the hang of the base," Quintana said. "Very exited."
It was Quintana's fifth and most important career since 2017, which may have helped to catapult the rest of the offense. The Cubs would score three more points in the fifth inning to take the lead, then add cushion with three more in the sixth.
"Literally, when Q had this success, Tony goes home," joked Jason Heyward after the match.
It was not Quintana who scored the goal, but Heyward was the one who gave the Cubs the lead with his own two-point circuit in the fifth after Victor Caratini's sacrificial volley scored Bryant to tie the meet more early in this round.
"We're having fun with that," said Heyward about Rizzo's joke. "But we're shooting for them obviously because they're out there, they want to keep the game tight, and sometimes they need to get up too."
The last three innings of Quintana on the mound allowed his team to stay in the game. He started the fourth with a walk to Elias Diaz and then did not allow another baseball player to win until Corey Dickerson's sixth single.
"I did not stop throwing my pitches, believing in my stuff and waiting for our offense to come back in the game, and they played really well," Quintana said. "I always thought that they could do more races, so I wanted to keep it and wait for our batters to come back in. They did a good job, it's really a positive feeling around us." this moment."
One of the keys to a solid second half for the Cubs is to get more wins than Sunday. After the match, Bryant said it was important to get some wins that were not right, like when a team lost 3-1 at the halfway mark. And especially in the last match of a set of three games where the Cubs had already won the first two. With the series won safely, it would be easy to give up and drop the last game, but the quick shot and the good shot of Quintana in the second half of its output helped to make the difference.
"As soon as it hits, it launches very well after that," said Joe Maddon. "He improved after the shot."
Quintana could be struggling to meet the expectations of coming from the other side of the city in a trade two years ago that cost two great expectations, but it should be noted that the average ERO in the league national is 4.39 and that after Sunday's win, Quintana lost 4.21. If he is the starter of the team, it will be fine.
He is very capable of combining quality starts and throwing as the team's ace, as in his last three outings with three consecutive quality starts, but there are also stretches like his race from May 26th to June 22 where he lost six starts in a row and his ERA went from 3.73 to 4.50.
Anyway, if Quintana makes more starts than Sunday, the Cubs are very well placed to continue their annual trend of victories in the second half of the season.
Click here to download the new NBC Sports MyTeams app! Get complete coverage of your teams and your feed
[ad_2]
Source link