Jose Quintana gets shellacked as Mets take ugly loss to Orioles
As the saying goes, momentum in baseball is the next day’s starting pitcher.
For all the positivity that came out of Monday’s walk-off victory, it came with the realization that the weak link in the rotation — Jose Quintana — was on the mound on Tuesday.
So, no, the Mets didn’t have any real momentum — Quintana’s effort didn’t allow any.
Five days after being given a five-run lead and flushing it, Quintana was non-competitive against the Orioles.
The Mets never had a chance with Quintana’s latest blow-up, falling 9-5 in what was an ugly, one-sided showing in Queens.
It has been a nightmarish August for the veteran southpaw.
The Mets (65-61) have lost all four of his starts as he has pitched to a gruesome 8.27 ERA.
His ERA now stands at 4.57.
With their loss, coupled with the Braves’ win over the Phillies, the Mets fell to three games behind Atlanta in the loss column for the final NL wild card spot.
Quintana was touched up for two-run homers by Anthony Santander and former Met James McCann, walked two and gave up eight hits and seven earned runs across five shoddy innings.
He’s averaged four walks per start this month, and has also been taken deep four times.
That’s a losing combination.
