Jose Quintana’s dominance of the Milwaukee Brewers continued on Tuesday night when he blanked the Brewers for six-plus innings on three hits in a 3-0 Cubs victory.
In nine attempts since Quintana came to the Cubs in the middle of last season, the Brewers have managed to win just once, a 7-0 win back on Aug. 14 at Wrigley Field. Take that game away and Quintana is 7-0 with a 0.81 earned run average in the other eight outings.
What’s puzzling for the Brewers is that Quintana has a 4.54 ERA for the season. He earned his 13th win overall.
Victor Caratini had a RBI single in the second and a run scoring double in the 7th as the Cubs extended their lead over the Brewers to two games in the National League Central.
It makes tonight’s series finale a crucial game for Milwaukee. Win and the Brewers leave Chicago trailing the Cubs by just one game with 15 left to play. Lose and the deficit grows to three games, which would make it difficult for the Brewers to overtake the Cubs for the division title.
The Brewers had a couple of chances to get to Quintana. The first came in the fourth inning with two runners aboard and nobody out. Jesus Aguilar struck out looking to start things off and that chance fell apart.
Then in the seventh, the Brewers loaded the bases with two outs, only to see Manny Pina strike out on three pitches by Cubs reliever Justin Wilson. Pina fell to 9 for 67 with runners in scoring position this season.
The Brewers remain the National League’s top wildcard team, but the Cardinals beat the Pirates on Tuesday night to climb to within 1 1/2 games of that top spot.
Chase Anderson faces Kyle Hendricks in the pitching matchup in the series finale tonight.
