Quintana shines in debut as Brewers blank Diamondbacks

Quintana goes seven scoreless in 7-0 victory

Box Score

For the second straight game, the Brewers got a strong debut from a new starting pitcher, but Jose Quintana’s performance on Friday night stole the spotlight from Quinn Priester’s outing on Thursday. Quintana, who tormented Brewer hitters for years before he signed late in the offseason, gave a masterclass in “crafty veteran lefty” and went seven hyper-efficient, shutout innings in a game that was close until Milwaukee’s bats broke it open late and gave them a comfortable shutout victory over one of the game’s best offenses.

After the Brewers went down in order in the first against Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodríguez, we got our first look at Quintana. Geraldo Perdomo got a decent swing on a ball that hung up in right field, and Corbin Carroll jumped on the first pitch he saw for a solid single. Quintana found his way out of it as he induced a double play from Randall Grichuk, and his first inning as a Brewer was a scoreless one on only six pitches.

Rhys Hoskins led off the second inning with his seventh walk of the season—an encouraging sign, as his walk percentage coming into the game was his highest since the 2019 season. Sal Frelick followed with a tapper back to Rodríguez, who went to second base for the first out, but Joey Ortiz followed with a single up the middle to put runners on first and second. After a strikeout of Isaac Collins, Frelick and Ortiz executed a double steal, but Vinny Capra grounded out softly to short to end the inning.

Quintana allowed a base hit to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to start the bottom of the second, but after a strikeout of Josh Naylor, he got his second double play in as many innings when Eugenio Suárez hit a grounder to Ortiz. Arizona flashed the leather in the top of the third as Jake McCarthy and Garrett Hampson made back-to-back sliding plays to rob Brice Turang and Jackson Chourio of hits. Christian Yelich reached with a two-out walk, but William Contreras grounded out, and Rodríguez was through three scoreless.

McCarthy got a one-out single in the bottom of the third, but he got a little jumpy at first base, and Quintana picked him off (Tim Dillard tells us that it was Quintana’s 30th career pickoff) before a groundout by Hampson ended the inning.

The Brewers broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fourth. Rhys Hoskins led off with a double down the left field line, and Frelick showed bunt on the first pitch he saw. On the second pitch, however, Frelick didn’t bunt and instead hit it right where the first baseman, Naylor, would have been standing if he hadn’t anticipated the bunt. Instead, Frelick reached second base on a double, and Hoskins scored. Ortiz was next, and he actually did bunt, which got Frelick to third, but Collins popped out in foul territory, and Naylor made a really nice defensive play to both retire Collins and hold Frelick at third. Capra made pretty solid contact with two outs, but he hit it right at Carroll, and the Brewers were unable to get that second run. They did lead, though, after three-and-a-half innings.

Though he had faced the minimum through three (two double plays and a pickoff), Quintana got his first actual 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, and he could be classified as “cruising”: he had only 45 pitches through his four scoreless innings.

Turang started a new hitting streak to lead off the fifth, and Chourio extended his own (to 13 games) three pitches later with a solid single. Yelich followed, and when he squared to bunt to start the at-bat, the pitch got by the normally sure-handed Gabriel Moreno, which allowed both runners to advance. Yelich swung at the next pitch and hit an RBI groundout to second base, which made it 2-0, and Contreras followed with a productive out of his own as a sac fly to center made it three. Hoskins hit a ball hard into the left field corner, but Gurriel ran it down for the third out, and Hoskins was left still looking for his first homer.

Quintana had another perfect inning in the bottom of the fifth, and though he gave up some solid contact (Frelick would have had his first homer of the year, but it was a little bit foul), Rodríguez had one too in the top of the sixth. After Quintana retired the side in order again in the sixth, he was up to 10 in a row, and he was at an ultra-efficient 62 pitches.

Rodríguez wasn’t having quite the night that Quintana was, but he was back out for the seventh inning. After a Capra strikeout, Turang picked up his second single of the night, and that ended Rodríguez’s night at 95 pitches. He was replaced by Ryan Thompson, who left some ugly pitches in some bad places but got Chourio to ground into a fielder’s choice and got Yelich to fly out to right.

The Diamondbacks finally ended Quintana’s streak when Perdomo led off the seventh with a base hit to right. He was erased when Carroll grounded into a fielder’s choice (on which Ortiz wisely did not attempt to double him up), and Grichuk followed with a solidly struck fly out to deep right. Carroll then advanced to second on a balk, and after a somewhat stressful battle, Quintana got Gurriel to fly out to center to end the inning.

The Brewers could not have asked for more from Quintana, who needed only 80 pitches to get through seven scoreless innings in this one. He was extraordinarily efficient, and it wasn’t until Carroll got to second—on a balk, no less—in the bottom of the seventh that a runner even got past first base. He had only two strikeouts, but he didn’t walk anyone and put Milwaukee’s excellent defense to good use. It was a truly impressive performance.

After the Brewers went down in order in the top of the eighth, Jared Koenig was on for Milwaukee in the bottom of the inning. Naylor reached to lead off the inning in what was called an error on Hoskins, but after a Suárez flyout and a Moreno strikeout, Hoskins made up for it with a nice play on a grounder by McCarthy that ended the inning.

Looking for some insurance, Ortiz led off the top of the ninth with a single, and Garrett Mitchell—who entered in the sixth as a defensive substitute—reached on a perfect bunt that Moreno could do nothing with. Arizona pitcher Joe Mantiply then plunked Capra to load the bases, giving the Brewers a perfect opportunity to open up a bigger lead. After a bit of a battle, Turang did just that, as he snuck his third hit through the drawn-in infield. That scored two and made it 5-0, and after Turang advanced to second on the throw in, Milwaukee still had runners on second and third with nobody out with the top of their order coming up.

Chourio jumped on the first pitch he saw (I know he’s been hot, but I think it’s time for someone to have a conversation with him about taking a few pitches) and grounded out, but Yelich added another with a more effective groundout, and then with two outs Contreras reached on an infield single that scored the fourth run of the inning for Milwaukee. After a walk of Hoskins, Mantiply, who took one for the team tonight, finally struck out Frelick to end the inning.

Since he hadn’t pitched in a few days and since he’d warmed up anyway, Trevor Megill came in for the bottom of the ninth. Arizona got a baserunner when Perdomo walked, and with two outs, Alek Thomas made the hardest contact of the evening for the Diamondbacks, but Mitchell ran down Thomas’s deep fly ball on the warning track in deep center, and the game was over as Milwaukee picked up a 7-0 victory.

Quintana was the big star, but the Brewers also got a nice, balanced effort from their offense. Turang had three singles, two runs scored, and two RBI; Ortiz had two hits, a sac bunt, and a run scored; Yelich went hitless but knocked in two runs; and Hoskins hit a double, walked twice, and scored a run.

Tomorrow will be a fun one, as the Brewers will face their former Cy Young winner, Corbin Burnes, while Chad Patrick will take the mound for Milwaukee. First pitch for that one is at 7:10 p.m.