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This record-setting start by José Quintana was a microcosm of his MLB career. The left-hander set a new career high, striking out 14 against the Phillies Tuesday night, while allowing only one earned run over six innings.
And of course Quintana was rewarded with a no-decision, as the Cubs offense could only muster up two runs against Jason Vargas and got nothing going against the bad Philadelphia bullpen.
Quintana’s 14 strikeouts in six innings also tied Kerry Wood’s Cubs franchise record for most strikeouts through six innings pitched. Surprisingly, though, the previous mark set by Wood didn’t come in his 20 strikeout performance against the Astros in 1998.
Quintana was charged with two runs, but again only one was earned and that was thanks to an Ian Happ error in the third inning. Happ dropped an easy pop up at second base with one out and the Phillies eventually scored on a sac-fly to left field.
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The bad luck continued for Quintana in the fifth inning, when he threw a 2-1 pitch down the middle of the plate at the knees to J.T. Realmuto, but the home plate umpire called the obvious strike ball three. On the 3-1 count, Realmuto homered to right field for the only earned run against Quintana.
The Cubs offense once again shitting the bed on the road. That’s now three games with two or fewer runs in their first five games of this current 10-game road trip.
