Turns out Jose Quintana's last pitch in the majors for a little while wasn't the one that wound up whizzing behind Ben Zobrist's knee. At least, his last pitch as a starter.
After Quintana was ejected from last Wednesday's contest against Tampa Bay, there appeared to be a decent chance he was sent back to the minors to make room for John Danks to re-join the starting rotation. But Danks will throw a bullpen session today and then head to Charlotte for a rehab start, after which he'll return to the starting rotation.
That means Quintana will take the ball tonight against Toronto and get another chance to build on his success at the major-league level. In 16 innings covering two starts and two relief appearances, Quintana owns a 1.69 ERA with five walks and nine strikeouts.
Those numbers are even more impressive when you consider Quintana has never pitched in Triple-A and had only thrown 48 23 innings above Single-A prior to his call-up. Plenty of young pitchers would've folded in the spotlight of the majors after making such a quick ascension.
But Quintana hasn't. He'll get one more chance to keep it that way tonight.