The White Sox only post-All-Star break victory belongs to Jose Quintana.
After Chris Sale was thoroughly Quintana’d by the White Sox bullpen — or more specifically, David Robertson — in an agonizing loss on Monday, Quintana picked up essentially right where he left off in the first half on Tuesday. The All-Star pitched around a few walks, scattered six hits across six innings and allowed just a solo home run to Robinson Cano in a 6-1 victory over Seattle.
Quintana struck out five of the first seven hitters he faced, and was staked to an early 1-0 lead on a Brett Lawrie solo shot in the second inning. He allowed at least one hit in four of his six innings of work, but was able to escape mostly unscathed on each occasion.
The lone blemish — Cano’s solo shot in the fourth inning — came on a first pitch hanging curveball that was golfed out to right-center field. And while he battled control issues, walking three, he escaped two on, one out jams in both the fourth and fifth innings, and ended his night by getting Daniel Robertson to fly out to center after walking Chris Iannetta and Leonys Martin to load the bases with two outs.
Quintana got a welcome dose of good fortune for a team that has lost four-straight since the All-Star break and six of seven overall, the offense did its part against Wade Miley and a bad Mariners bullpen. Quintana left with the Sox leading 3-1 thanks to solo home runs by Lawrie and Melky Cabrera, and an RBI single by J.B. Shuck, and the Sox poured on some insurance in the ninth off the combination of Joaquin Benoit and David Rollins.
Todd Frazier took Benoit deep after Cabrera walked to lead off the inning, and Dioner Navarro completed the scoring with a double into the right field corner that scored Shuck.
Speaking of Shuck, he had a three-hit night and Tim Anderson had another multi-hit game after starting the second half 1-for-15 with seven strikeouts.
The bullpen had a rare, quiet night, with Zach Duke, Nate Jones and Carson Fulmer combining for three scoreless innings to preserve the victory. Fulmer faced two hitters, striking out Leonys Martin on an 89-mph fastball that may have been aided by a kind strike zone, and getting Adam Lind to ground out to first.
Team record: 46-47
Next game: 2:40 p.m. CT against Seattle on CSN
Lead photo credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports