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Chicago Cubs starters feeding off Jose Quintana’s recent dominance
Jose Quintana has given the Chicago Cubs the spark they’ve needed to get hot, and the rest of the rotation will gain confidence and build off his recent surge
No one can ever get too worried about a slow start in such a long season, but in one of the toughest divisions in baseball, it’s important to not dig too deep a hole out of the gates. After a 1-6 start to the season, someone inside the Chicago Cubs clubhouse needed to step up to help turn things around.
That guy? Jose Quintana. After his team dropped the first three series of the season to Texas, Atlanta and Milwaukee, the southpaw put on a show (seven shutout innings, 11 strikeouts) in a rubber match against the Pittsburgh Pirates to get the Cubs their first series win. From that point on, Quintana has taken charge and led the team’s surge back above the .500 mark.
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Chicago gave up an arm and leg to get Quintana almost two years ago and the question of his worth has always been a question of hot contention.
In six seasons on the South Side, Quintana was 50-54 with an ERA of 3.51, making his mark as one of the best pitchers in the game with the worst run support. Since coming to the North Side, we’ve only seen the Quintana we thought we were getting in spurts. Since joining the Cubs, Quintana is 23-15 with a 3.86 ERA. Those are solid numbers, but with an ERA of over 4.00 in his first full season, Cubs fans feel a little uneasy about the package, including Eloy Jimenez, they sent for him.
Through a season and a half, we’ve seen flashes of his capabilities, but for the first time, we are witnessing domination from Quintana, and it’s helping take the Cubs to new heights. After the gem against the Pirates, he followed it up with seven more shutout innings in Miami, and then another impressive outing against the back-to-back National League champions, where he threw another seven innings, giving up just two runs and securing another win. Throw away a nightmare outing in Milwaukee, and Quintana has thrown 25 innings while giving up just two runs this season.
We are finally watching the All-Star lefty the Cubs traded for and it’s rubbing off on the rest of the pitching staff. Over the past 10 games, Chicago pitching leads all of baseball in earned run average, while going 8-2 in that span. After the abysmal start, the Cubs find themselves over .500 for the first time since the season opener, mere games out of first in the division.
The significance of Jose Quintana leading this charge cannot go unnoticed. If this was Jon Lester giving these performances, it would be more of the same for the Cubs. Lester has always carried this rotation in hard times and the question would still remain on whether the rest of the staff can pull their weight.
For most of his time in Chicago, Quintana has been considered another one of Theo Epstein’s acquisitions that hasn’t played out. Sure, it’s taken some time for him to find his footing, but his recent dominance has to have given more confidence to guys like Yu Darvish and Tyler Chatwood, two other arms the Cubs gave massive amounts to that have underperformed to this point.
Seeing Quintana finally start to blossom, Darvish and Chatwood have hope and faith that their time is coming. We can see this impact already. Chatwood went six shutout innings in his first start of 2019 against Arizona on Sunday, shocking anyone who watched him play last season.
Unlikely heroes emerging in the Chicago bullpen. dark. Next
As we all know, the Cubs’ success isn’t going to come from outside acquisitions this season, but from the development of guys already on the roster. Watching Quintana step up is a great first step. If it continues to rub off on Chatwood and Darvish can gain confidence from this, the Cubs are going to be a force we haven’t seen since the 2016 World Series run. With Lester, Kyle Hendricks and Cole Hamels on track to do their thing this season, this could be the best rotation in baseball.