How Mets starter Jose Quintana turned around his season

Following Thursday’s brutal 1-0 loss at the Washington Nationals, New York Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner noted that a change in approach has helped starting pitcher Jose Quintana turn things around this season.

“I think we just got back to simplifying a little bit,” Hefner explained, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post. “We were maybe overcooking some of the movement we were seeing, what the computer was saying and those type of things. We just got back to being simple and executing.”

Quintana went into a June 15 start against the San Diego Padres responsible for a 5.29 ERA on the season, but the 35-year-old has dropped his overall ERA to 4.22 over the course of his last four starts, including seven scoreless innings against the Nationals the last time he took the mound.

Unfortunately for Quintana’s hopes of notching a victory at Nationals Park, the Mets failed to score a single run both before and after Jesse Winker hit a pinch-hit home run off of New York’s Adrian Houser in the bottom of the eighth inning of a loss that dropped the Mets to 42-43 on the campaign.

“I am trying to use more of my strengths and the hitters’ strengths too,” Quintana said while also crediting “a mechanical adjustment” for his improved performances over the past month. 

Quintana remains on track to reach free agency this coming fall and recently made it known he is “ready to be a Met for the whole year” amid rumors claiming the club could trade him for some needed bullpen help. He again touched upon his future following Thursday’s outing.

“We’re in a good race right now, so I think we need to more focus on us,” Quintana said. “About trades, I have been in this position before and I just want to get ready every five days to compete and we’ll see what happens.”

The Mets entered Friday’s MLB action two and a half games back in the battle for the National League’s final wild-card playoff spot. If suffering back-to-back defeats against Washington becomes a trend that continues at the 41-45 Pittsburgh Pirates beginning on Friday night, the Mets could soon again be considered potential sellers heading into the July 30 trade deadline.