Jose Quintana's ERA fell to 1.98 after allowing one run in 5 13 innings Tuesday in St. Louis, although he reached that good result in a different way than in previous games.
In most of his outings, Quintana's walks and strikeouts were close to equal, with both numbers being on the low side, especially this month. But on June 6 against Toronto, Quintana allowed two runs on nine hits with a walk, strikeout and home run apiece -- nothing that's going to set his defensive-independent rating on fire.
Tuesday saw Quintana allow 10 hits, but his four strikeouts, zero walks and zero home runs were encouraging. His slider and curveball were working, and while his fastball wasn't great, it was good to see his offspeed stuff be successful against a good lineup.
Still, he only threw 76 pitches, and that's likely because Robin Ventura was trying to protect him after St. Louis did knock him around a bit. With a deep, rested bullpen, there wasn't too much need to push Quintana, especially as St. Louis mounted a rally in the bottom of the sixth.
Everything seems to point to John Danks needing one more minor-league rehab start, which means Quintana will get one more chance to make his case to stay in the White Sox rotation when Danks returns. Of course, a lot of Quintana's immediate future rests on how Philip Humber performs in his next outing on Saturday in Los Angeles, as a successful start would probably keep Humber in the major-league rotation while Quintana would be sent to Charlotte.
Quintana's results may be a bit shaky, but results are results. Unfortunately for Humber, that's more than he can say right now. And if things stay this way into next week, it could mean Quintana keeps his spot in the rotation and bumps Humber to the bullpen.
Tuesday wasn't a perfect step in that direction, but it was a step forward for the 23-year-old Colombian.