Jose Quintana’s Efforts Rewarded with First Mets Victory

Despite the struggles of Mets pitching in 2023, Jose Quintana has provided rare consistency since returning from injury (Photo by Rhona Wise, USA Today)

The New York Mets have been a mess since the Trade Deadline. Despite a series win against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Mets own a 5-12 record since August 1 with ugly losses aplenty. With those losses have come some ugly efforts on the mound, especially after the departures of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. While Kodai Senga has held his own as a promising name all season long, another veteran has stepped up since their departures, and that player is Jose Quintana.

Quintana signed a two year deal to join the Mets this past offseason, but missed most of the first half of 2023 due to a rib injury. He’s now back on the mound following a chaotic late-July, but he has held his own despite some bad luck.

His debut came on July 20th against one of his former teams, the Chicago White Sox. Despite struggling in his first two innings, allowing one run in each frame, he consistently bore down and limited potential damage, ending his day with five innings and two runs on six hits on 77 pitches. Following that game, he’s built on those attributes and kept providing moderate length.

After his debut start against the White Sox, Quintana has made it through the sixth inning in all five starts since (Photo by Brad Penner, USA Today)

In the five starts since, he’s gone at least six innings, going as far as 6.2 against Kansas City on August 1. While he has allowed his share of runs, he’s continued to limit the runs, with his season high sitting at three earned runs in the same game against Kansas City. Although he lost all of those starts, he was far from the main reason for the Mets’ defeats.

In fact, there are various instances of him continuing to gut out difficult situations. Take his July 26th outing against the Yankees. Despite some spotty defense and allowing six hits and three walks, he only allowed three runs, two of them earned. His August 6 outing against Baltimore was a similar story; despite facing various jams against a strong Orioles offense, he consistently found ways to escape jams, only allowing a run in the fifth.

Quintana continued these trends on Thursday against the Cardinals. Despite walking four batters, allowing five hits, and running out of gas in the seventh, Quintana kept finding ways to get outs. He allowed two runs in that seventh, but the turning point in his outing was the fourth, with back-to-back walks with two outs loading the bases. However, he made the big pitch and got help from Francisco Lindor to escape with no runs allowed. For his efforts, Quintana finally earned his first win as a Met with six solid innings with five strikeouts.

As a result, while allowing baserunners isn’t the most sustainable recipe for success, Quintana has proved his worth for the Mets in the rubble of their season. He’s provided an ability to get outs in all of his starts, despite difficult circumstances, providing consistency and getting big outs in all of his starts. As a result, despite a down 2023, Quintana’s performance is providing hope for the backend of the Mets’ rotation next season.