Jose Quintana was roughed up for the third time in his past four starts in Friday’s 4-2 loss to Atlanta, but both the left-hander and manager Carlos Mendoza refused to sound the alarm regarding his recent performance.
After giving up three homers in the third inning and with an ERA of 7.84 in his past four outings, Quintana said Friday’s outing “was not good,” but added that his stuff felt good.
And Mendoza added he’s “not concerned.”
“He has to limit the long innings and hard contact,’’ Mendoza said. “I thought the stuff was there. I’m not worried about him.”
Others may be.
Following a solid start to the season, Quintana has quickly fallen on hard times.
Unlike in his previous outing when he was hammered for eight runs in just 2 ²/₃ innings at Tampa Bay, Quintana was hurt on Friday by some quick — but powerful — damage done by Atlanta.
It all happened in the top of the third of a scoreless game with three swings of the bat.
Quintana retired six of the first seven batters he faced and after he allowed a leadoff single to ex-Met Travis d’Arnaud to open the third, he got a double play from Orlando Arcia.
And then things fell apart, as Quintana allowed three homers the rest of the inning, as many as he had all season over 36 ¹/₃ innings.
Ronald Acuna Jr. started the damage by smashing a colossal 461-foot homer to dead center on a 3-2 sinker for the game’s first run.
Ozzie Albies followed with a blast into the seats in left on Quintana’s next pitch.
A walk to Austin Riley extended the inning and after a visit from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, Quintana then gave up his third homer of the inning, this one to Matt Olson, which is the one pitch he regretted.
The two-run shot to center gave Atlanta a 4-0 lead, more than enough to beat an anemic Mets offense.
It was the first time in nearly two years Quintana allowed three home runs in a game, let alone in an inning.
“It’s frustrating because I felt great,’’ Quintana said. “If I limit the damage to one or two runs, we have a good chance to come back.”
Quintana added he would be looking for more consistency his next time out, though he wasn’t too discouraged.
“Today the results were not good on the line, but it wasn’t bad like the last one,’’ Quintana said. “I have to execute better.’’
