Cal Quantrill pitches well in victory over Rays

Quantrill did walk three, but he was able to keep that self-inflicted damage at bay while allowing just a Mike Trout RBI single. The 31-year-old has been a pleasant surprise at the back of the Texas rotation, and now has a 3.44 ERA for his trouble. He’ll get a chance to lower it next week against the Nationals, if the Rangers’ rotation order doesn’t change.

That’s the best a team can hope for from Quantrill, but it wasn’t enough for the Rangers against Logan Webb. Quantrill dropped to 4-4 with a 3.62 ERA. He might be shifted to middle relief now with the Rangers set to get Jordan Montgomery and Cody Bradford back from the IL.

Quantrill followed opener Tyler Alexander and got himself through three innings here. His second of which was cumbersome. He walked both Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery to start the inning and let each come around to score via two two-out singles. Both of his other two innings were clean, but don’t look to Quantrill in anything besides the very deepest of leagues.

Quantrill pitched himself out of a tough situation in the first inning when he got Mauricio Dubón to fly out with runners on second and third to end the frame. He was less fortunate in the second inning, as the Braves slapped four singles and drove in two runs to give them an early 2-0 lead, and by the fourth inning, the Braves had increased their lead to 6-0 thanks to homers by Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson. Quantril would make it out of the frame but was pulled to begin the fifth inning, bringing an end to his worst start of the season. He only allowed one free pass, but the six runs and 11 hits he surrendered were both season-highs. Hopefully, this is just a one-off for a pitcher who entered the day with a 3.11 ERA. His next start is scheduled for Wednesday against the White Sox.

The sinker-balling Quantrill was blessed by this right-handed heavy Astros’ lineup. He threw that pitch nearly 60% of the time to the seven righties and of the 11 times they put it in play, no one reached safely. That right there is a sinker-baller’s dream. The one blemish on his ledger was a solo home run from Yordan Alvarez, and there’s not much any pitcher can do about that. Still, Quantrill has had a nice return to the rotation so far with a 2.12 ERA across four starts spanning 17 innings.

Deciding to give Kumar Rocker and Jacob deGrom some extra rest and start Quantrill today probably didn’t hurt the Rangers; Quantrill wasn’t great, but the Rangers offense wound up being shut out anyway. Quantrill has a 3.35 ERA in three starts and 15 relief appearances for Texas. He has a 3-1 record, even though the Rangers are 4-14 when he pitches. Of course, a lot of those games were pretty much over by the time he came in.

Rocker will receive an extra day of rest with Cal Quantrill being moved up to take the ball on Saturday afternoon against Detroit. The 26-year-old has strung together back-to-back strong outings, striking out 14 batters and allowing just two runs over 11 innings against the Blue Jays and Marlins in his last two starts. There’s some definite streaming appeal for fantasy managers in deeper mixed leagues based on his recent efforts.

Quantrill was outstanding on Saturday, holding the Blue Jays scoreless over four innings of work, going deeper in his second start as he continues to get stretched out. He scattered two hits and one walk while collecting five strikeouts. The 31-year-old right-hander will take a 3.31 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, and a 25/11 K/BB ratio across 35 1/3 innings into a start against the Tigers in Texas on Thursday.

Quantrill has been summoned to gobble up innings out of Texas’ bullpen after failing to make the club as a non-roster invitee earlier this spring. The 31-year-old righty posted a bloated 6.04 ERA across 117 2/3 innings between the Braves and Marlins last year. He can be safely ignored in all fantasy formats.

It looked like Sborz had a real chance of making the team after a decent run this spring in his return from shoulder injuries, but Rule 5 pick Carter Baumler got the nod over him. Texas will go with a bullpen of Robert Garcia, Chris Martin, Cole Winn, Jakob Junis, Jacob Latz, Jalen Beeks, Tyler Alexander and Baumler. It doesn’t leave them much flexibility that Garcia and Latz, their two best lefties, are the only guys there who can be sent down.