MIAMI — It was only a quiet, impassive remark early in spring coaching from essentially the most earnest and understated beginning pitcher within the Cubs’ rotation.
Goals for 2019?
“For sure I want to go back to the All-Star Game,” Jose Quintana stated.
Fast-forward to Tuesday evening, and the Cubs’ fifth starter in identify solely seems like a person with a imaginative and prescient that could be beginning to come to life.
Man on a mission: Jose Quintana (2-1, 3.43) could be 14 scoreless innings nearer to the All-Star choice he seeks after Tuesday’s victory in Miami.
Armed with a newly refined changeup, a devastating curveball and a swing-and-miss excessive fastball, the Cubs left-hander made fast work of the no-name Marlins with seven scoreless innings in a 4-Zero victory at Marlins Park.
It got here 5 days after one other seven-inning gem to beat the Pirates 2-0 — giving him 14 consecutive scoreless innings with 18 strikeouts and only one stroll within the two begins.
“Q was on top of his game again,” supervisor Joe Maddon stated. “Great command of all the pieces. Great stick with it his pitches. The curveball nearly as good as we’ve seen it. And now the change is changing into a pressure.
“He’s pitching with all the pieces he’s obtained with a number of confidence, and there’s no cause why he can’t proceed that technique.”
Quintana (2-1) didn’t permit a runner to succeed in second till a two-out double by Austin Dean within the seventh, however he adopted that together with his seventh strikeout of the evening to retire Lewis Brinson for the ultimate out.
The timing couldn’t be higher for the Cubs, who’re going with a four-man rotation till not less than April 27, or till ace Jon Lester returns from a hamstring harm, whichever comes first.
“We’re together,” Quintana stated of the tight-night beginning corps. “We know how strong Jon is for our rotation, and we’ve got to take care of his back.”
Since the sport through which Lester obtained damage, the Cubs have gone 5-2 to drag inside two video games of .500 for the primary time since April 1.
Quintana’s efficiency has been as large as any Cubs participant in that span. He has recorded back-to-back scoreless begins for the primary time since being acquired in July 2017 from the White Sox for prospects Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease.
This is just the third time in his profession he has pitched consecutive scoreless outings of not less than seven innings. The final time was in 2014.
“We have a long season ahead, and we’re trying to win as many games as we can,” he stated. “Every time we try to do better. That’s what I focus on. And right now, I’m feeling great.”
Javy Baez turned simply the third Cubs shortstop in 60 years to report not less than three hits in three consecutive video games. He hit an extended house run to right-center on an evening the ball didn’t carry effectively.
Center fielder Albert Almora Jr. — whose household and associates had been pregame visitors on the sphere, sporting Almora T-shirts together with his No. 5 in a Superman “S” emblem — made two distinctive catches, together with a diving catch of ex-Cub Starlin Castro’s sinking liner to straightway heart within the sixth with a runner on base.
But this evening belonged to -Quintana.
“He’s totally motivated,” Maddon stated. “He’s all the time had the look. For me, the distinction [this year] is the willingness and skill to make use of all the pieces he owns, the curveball and the changeup. And now the stick with it the fastball turns into even faster. They’re late to react to it.
“He’s in a great place proper now. We’ve simply obtained to maintain him there.”
Whether he ever makes folks drop all of the unfair comparisons to Jimenez and Cease, Quintana does admit he permits himself to consider incomes a second profession All-Star choice.
“Always,” he stated after the postgame media consideration died down. “It’s a goal for every pitcher. And if you make an All-Star Game, it’s become you’re out there winning games, because you’ve been doing something good for your team.”