Weird outing for Jose Quintana in Mets' loss to Phillies
The Mets' Jose Quintana pitches during the fourth inning of a game against the Phillies on Saturday in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/Matt Slocum
PHILADELPHIA — Jose Quintana’s final line in the Mets’ 7-5 loss to the Phillies on Saturday was a weird one.
He struck out 10 and walked none. He gave up a season-high six runs — one was unearned — in six innings, but more could have fallen into the latter category based on a series of suboptimal defensive plays on a rainy day. He allowed eight hits, but several of them, similarly, could have been outs.
Ultimately, it was an ugly outing in an ugly game in ugly conditions in an ugly season.
“Those are the type of outings that I think sometimes are more impressive than shutouts,” manager Buck Showalter said. “That’s him in a nutshell there. I couldn’t have picked a better guy to pitch in [today’s] conditions.”
Among the miscues: A fielding error by Francisco Lindor and a whiff of a sliding catch attempt by Jeff McNeil, resulting in Nick Castellanos’ RBI triple in a two-run second inning. Quintana also yielded home runs to Bryce Harper (451 feet to right-center) and Alec Bohm. Harper added a two-run single ripped off first baseman Pete Alonso’s glove in the fifth.
When he realized the wind was aiding fly balls, Quintana changed his approach to pitch low in the strike zone and try to get grounders.
“I said, ‘We need to change our plan. We need to keep the ball in the ballpark,’ ” Quintana said.
The Mets scored five runs (three earned) in seven innings against Zack Wheeler, also betrayed by his defense.He struck out six and walked one.
One play in the second inning netted a pair of unearned runs. Trea Turner’s fielding error resulted directly in the first. Seconds later, after leftfielder Kyle Schwarber threw the ball back in, Turner lamented his miscue more than he paid attention to Ronny Mauricio, who scooted home from third.
“I did that on my own. I made the read,” Mauricio said through an interpreter. “I was running to third and I said, if he throws it in soft, I’m going to break home. Since Turner had his back turned, I decided to break there.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
