Dear Mets offense, score some runs for Jose Quintana today

Jose Quintana didn’t make his debut for the New York Mets until July 20. He tossed 5 innings of 2-run ball against one of his old clubs, the Chicago White Sox. It was pretty much what we could’ve hoped for. He wasn’t dominant. He only struck out 3 batters. The Mets were in the game.

Unfortunately, he took the tough luck loss. A few days later, Quintana stepped on the mound again versus the New York Yankees only to go one more inning to secure himself the first of what has become three quality starts in four outings. Again, a lack of run support by the Mets offense resulted in a 3-1 loss for the Amazins. Quintana is 0-3 with a 3.42 ERA.

The Mets have averaged 9 total runs in games started by Quintana. Two-thirds came in their 7-6 loss to the Kansas City Royals. They were shutout by the Baltimore Orioles in his last start on Sunday. Can they please stop treating this guy like he’s Jacob deGrom or Tom Seaver and actually help him out a little bit?

NY Mets pitcher Jose Quintana could use a little help from the bats

Mets starting lineups featuring DJ Stewart in the cleanup spot, Rafael Ortega in the outfield, and Danny Mendick all over the place have become far too frequent. These kinds of starting lineups don’t inspire much confidence in the fans. Send out as many apology letters to season ticket holders as you wish. The justification for such a lousy product just isn’t there.

Nobody has suffered more on a consistent basis from these lousy lineups than Quintana. While it was only his most recent outing when we saw just how truly miserable a starting nine could look, a weakness of this ball club all year has been exposed every fifth or sixth day when the veteran lefty does take the mound.

We may have now reached the point where the narrative of what was most wrong with the Mets this season isn’t the starting pitching. David Peterson’s overall numbers aren’t as atrocious as they once were. Before they left, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer were much more themselves, particularly JV. Quintana falling just one inning shy in his debut of going 4 for 4 with quality starts and not allowing a single home run thus far helped lower the starting pitcher ERA for the year. The bullpen has continued to struggle, maybe even more so since the absence of David Robertson. This just pushes one more fringe major leaguer into action.

Asking for some run support shouldn’t be this difficult. Of course, it’s going to need to happen against the Atlanta Braves today. It doesn’t matter where the two teams are in the standings. This is never easy.

Quintana was able to finally return from the IL right before the tires blew out on the Mets season. He has looked as advertised. He can’t do it himself, though. This is setting up to be a 12-11 Mets win where Quintana gets hammered, isn’t it?