Jose Quintana continues to deserve better from Mets teammates after latest hard-luck loss

NEW YORK – During a gloomy stretch for the Mets, Jose Quintana has provided one of the few glimmers of hope.

The only problem is the Mets veteran left-hander has gotten little to no support from his offense.

Since returning from bone graft surgery on July 20, Quintana has delivered quality starts in four of his five outings. The 34-year-old continued that trend on Saturday night against the Braves.

It was arguably Quintana’s best start of his Mets tenure as he allowed one earned run on four hits and three walks but the Mets did not threaten much against Braves starter Spencer Strider. The Mets were swept in the split doubleheader with a 6-0 loss in front of 30,254 fans on Saturday night at Citi Field.

Quintana's outing provided a breath of fresh air after the Mets gave up 21 runs in a lopsided loss in the opening game on Saturday, but the Mets offense could not help deliver him to his first win with the team. They were outscored 27-3 across the two games.

"It’s a tough lineup, so I think all at-bats were a challenge and early I needed to attack the zone and change speeds," Quintana said. "Everything worked really good. I think it’s frustrating to get that kind of loss, but I want to keep going. If I keep throwing the ball like I did tonight, the results are coming."

Instead, the Mets dropped their third straight game to the Braves to drop to a season-worst 13 games under .500 at 52-65.

Lack of support

Along with rookie Kodai Senga, Quintana is one of the few rock-steady contributors in the Mets starting rotation now that Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer have been traded.

In his first five starts of his Mets career, Quintana has notched a 3.03 ERA and 1.28 WHIP in 29.2 innings with 20 strikeouts. His record sits at 0-4 as he has only received three runs from the Mets offense in those outings.

In the first six innings against Strider on Saturday, the Mets left six runners on base and were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

"He has done an amazing job and we haven’t backed him up, so yeah, it is tough," said Francisco Lindor, who was 0-for-4 with a stolen base in his return after missing two games with side soreness. "You see him competing, executing and then we don’t put runs for him. It’s hard to win games when you don’t score.

"It’s tough, but not just him, overall, the pitchers, they have pitched good games and it seemed like one or two innings, it seems like the games have gotten out of our hands."

It was part of a troubling trend across the series for the Mets, who were 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position and left 22 runners on base in the first two losses of the series.

Continuing to grind

On Saturday night, Quintana retired the first 10 batters he faced. He worked around his first trouble in the top of the fourth inning as he induced an inning-ending double play with a pair of runners on base.

The Braves took the lead in the top of the fifth inning on a bloop RBI single from Kevin Pillar after Marcell Ozuna delivered a one-out double.

Despite walking two and giving up a single to Matt Olson in the top of the sixth inning, Quintana kept the Mets in the game by getting out of the bases-loaded jam with a fly ball.

"It’s not a pure velocity thing. His fastball’s always played up. He’s got a talented hand," Buck Showalter said. "He’s not afraid to throw the ball inside and he competes. He gets a lot of counts in his favor.

"When things are going good, you see a lot of fly ball outs, which he had tonight. Just watching him compete that last inning when he was at the end there, to get through that inning, I wish we could’ve done something to reward him for it."

Quintana threw a season-high 104 pitches -  an encouraging sign after he missed the opening four months of the season with a stress reaction in his ribs that led to the discovery of a lesion.

"It was tough inning, long inning. I felt a little tired at the end but focused," Quintana said. "I was thinking one pitch at a time, executing and getting outs, and I did. I think our plan with (Francisco) Alvarez, he called a really good game."

After needing just 50 pitches get through the first four innings, Quintana threw 54 over his final two but was able to limit the damage despite allowing seven batters to reach base.

Bottom falls out

Mets right-handed reliever Drew Smith entered a 1-0 game in the bottom of the eighth inning. He left with the Braves extending their advantage to 4-0.

Smith hit opening batter Ozzie Albies to being the frame before a run scored on a pair of fielding errors by Danny Mendick and Tim Locastro.

"We had a couple of defensive miscues there that kind of put the game out reach," Showalter said. "It’s kind of where we are offensively right now. Those tack-on runs are big for the other team."

Things got worse for Smith as he walked Matt Olson and then gave up a two-run double to Ozuna before being pulled after just one out. Smith has now allowed three runs across his last two outings.

Phil Bickford gave up a two-run home run to Ozzie Albies in the top of the ninth inning.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY Mets: Jose Quintana continues to get no run support in loss to Braves