How Do You Like Him Now?

White Sox fans are a mean, nasty lot.  It’s not enough for our team to win; we want the Cubs to lose, too.  If the Sox traded Jesus to the North Side, we’d probably all become Satanists.  So, how do you expect us to feel about ex-Sox starter José Quintana?

When the trade went down between both sides of town, I told a friend all those Quintana 0-2 counts that turned into walks and base hits were his problem now.  I stand before you as a prophet vindicated.  In the first inning of yesterday’s Cubs-Diamondbacks’ game, Quintana had two runners on one out, with Paul Goldschmidt up.  The count quickly went to 0-2, then 1-2, then 2-2, then full, at which point Goldschmidt cracked a three-run homer to left that nearly hit the oversized video board.  Two batters later, Brandon Drury drilled said board.

This was vintage Quintana, a glass half full or empty, depending on which stats you chose to look at.  On the one hand, he only gave up six hits in five innings, with a walk vs. six strikeouts.  Then again, he also gave up three long balls in a 103-pitch outing.  When your starter can’t make it into the sixth inning, you can expect to lean on your bullpen.  Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon did precisely that going through five relievers until he found one, Wade Davis, who could serve up back-to-back homers in the ninth to give the Diamondbacks a win.

Quintana is now 2-1 as a Cub, with a 4.13 ERA in 24 innings; I’m particularly impressed by the five long balls he’s given up.  In the meantime, outfielder Eloy Jiménez, one of the players we obtained in exchange for “Q,” went 21 for 59 with High-A Winston-Salem in his first month as a Sox farmhand, good enough to be named co-winner of the organization’s offensive player of the month award.  That makes me feel good, and a little nasty.