Mets’ Jose Quintana frustrated with ‘bad’ third inning in loss to Braves
The next seven games are an important stretch for the Mets.
New York will be going up against the Braves and Phillies over the next week, and that will test them on where they stand in the NL East. Friday was the beginning of that stretch, and the team hoped Jose Quintana would start them on the right foot. He couldn’t.
The left-hander gave the Mets five gritty innings in their 4-2 loss on Friday night, but it was the third inning that doomed the team’s hopes of making a comeback.
“Wasn’t good,” Quintana said of the inning after the game. “After two outs the game changed.”
With two outs, Quintana allowed back-to-back home runs to Ronald Acuna Jr. and Ozzie Albies. He walked Austin Riley and then Matt Olson, who hasn’t hit a home run since April 7, took the southpaw deep to put the Braves up 4-0.
"It's frustrating because a lot feels great and [I'm] throwing the ball well against a pretty good lineup,” Quintana continued. “After two outs everything changed, big damage. That's pretty bad.”
Of the 1,838 innings he’s pitched, Friday’s third inning was the first time Quintana gave up three home turns. The 13-year veteran said he made a couple of mistakes on location and some of his pitches were flat. His manager pointed to one particular pitch in that inning that spelled trouble for his starter.
“The one he wishes he had back was the one to Olson,” Carlos Mendoza explained. “He’s trying to go down and away and he misses middle in. Other than that, he gave us five innings but that inning obviously cost us.”
“That pitch, yeah. If I limit the damage to 1-2 runs we have a good chance to come back in the game,” Quintana agreed. “That one was right in the middle. This is the big leagues, expect better pitches.”
Over his last two starts, Quintana has allowed 12 earned runs. Friday took the left-hander out of his routine because he was originally scheduled to pitch Wednesday’s series finale against the Cardinals. With the game postponed and the off day on Thursday, the 35-year-old had an extra two days of rest.
Quintana said he always welcomes the extra rest but he wouldn’t say it was the reason for his struggles. Instead, he puts the blame on his execution.
“Execute better. Be more consistent,” he said. “Sometimes we miss spots, that’s part of the game, but in some situations, I have to execute better pitches…It’s not the pitch I choose, it’s location. I have to work on location and be better with it.”
Quintana will have a chance to make up for his shortcomings in this stretch next week but for now, the Mets look to even the series on Saturday afternoon.
