Quintana, Cubs shut down Marlins

Behind José Quintana’s stellar seven shutout innings, the Cubs blanked the Marlins at Marlins Park Tuesday night, 4-0.

Quintana had a poor 5.25 ERA in two previous career games against the Marlins. But on this occasion, the veteran left-hander mixed his pitches unpredictably and frequently got ahead in the count (first-pitch strikes to 21 of 27 batters faced).

Different story for Pablo López. Similar to his prior three starts, López coasted through opponents the first time around the starting lineup.

However, as the contest moved forward, Lopez ran into some issues. In the third inning, David Bote ripped a leadoff double off the right field wall. Lopez was able to secure two significant outs before the former St. Louis Cardinal Daniel Descalso produced an RBI single.

The next inning spelled more trouble for López. After hitting Wilson Contreras to load the bases, Bote softly grounded out to Miguel Rojas, unable to turn the inning-ending double play, thus resulting in a Cubs run.

Prior to the first pitch, the Marlins recalled Isaac Galloway from Triple-A New Orleans. Starting in right field, Galloway made two fantastic defensive plays, with one preventing a Chicago run.

Galloway also managed to record his first hit of 2019, singling in the fifth. He figures to see a lot of playing time moving forward against left-handers.

In his first game action since Saturday, Jorge Alfaro came so close to tying the score in the bottom of the eighth. Trailing 3-0 with two runners aboard, he crushed a fly ball to the warning track in straightaway center field. Alas, Albert Almora Jr. tracked it down.

Miami’s bullpen was efficient for the most part, despite allowing one solo home run. Tyler Kinley, in particular, continues to have under-the-radar success.

Through 18 games, Miami has now laid a goose egg on the scoreboard four times, including one home shutout. The team’s season average of 2.67 runs per game ranks dead last in Major League Baseball.

The Marlins hope to salvage one game of the series Wednesday night. Sandy Alcantara will make his fourth appearance of the campaign, entering Wednesday with a 1-1 mark. First pitch is approximately 7:10 p.m.

Cubs vs. Marlins box score (MLB.com)

FanGraphs

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