BrewCap: Quintana is Our Daddy

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez has the famous quote ‘I don’t know what to say, I guess you can call them my daddy.’ He said this about the New York Yankees offense that he struggled against all year. It prompted Yankees fans to chat ‘Who’s Your Daddy?!?!’ Some Brewers position player could do the same thing about Jose Quintana. Good lord. This is his sixth time pitching against the Brewers this season, and five have been magnificent for Quintana and Chicago. Cubs move back ahead by two games, and the Brewers cannot take division lead this week.
Player of the Game: Jose Quintana – It’s not a hard one here. He pitched like a beast and an ace. Quintana is the Cubs’ best weapon against the Brewers. He seems to be the one guy that Milwaukee cannot figure out. I’m sure it’s frustrating for the Brewers considering they’ve been successful against other top line pitchers. He went nearly seven innings giving up three hits and striking out seven batters with only walking two. Brewers had one or two innings where they gave him trouble.
Silver Star: Victor Cartini – This is the annoying thing about the Chicago Cubs. They have guys like Victor Cartini ready and available on their bench. Cartini played catcher tonight and gave Joe Maddon an extra left-handed bat. Cartini paid it off with two hits and two RBis including a big double in the seventh inning to extend Chicago’s lead to three. This was after Milwaukee failed to capitalize with the bases loaded in the half inning before Cartini’s big hit.
Honorable Mention: Addison Russell – This guy did not have a single at-bat against the Brewers, but he came in for defense late in the game. He robbed both Jesus Aguilar and Ryan Braun of singles with spectacular defense. There were many indicators that it wasn’t Milwaukee’s night, and this sealed it.
Next up: Milwaukee finishes their season series with Chicago. Chase Anderson goes for the Crew against Kyle Hendricks in a must-win game. If the Brewers win, they’re one game back and clearly in striking distance the rest of the way. Three games back makes things a lot more difficult with only two plus weeks left to play. Anderson has been okay in the past couple weeks, but my guess is Craig Counsell’s leash with him will be short. Hendricks will try to dazzle like Quintana did tonight.
Charlie.