Cal Quantrill fires seven scoreless to beat Rays

Quantrill gave up four hits, walked none and struck out eight. He fell to 6-5 with the loss. Quantrill has been excellent in August with a 1.45 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 31 innings over four starts and one relief appearance. He has a 3.01 ERA on the season. Quantrill is lined up to face the Rays at home next week.

Quantrill has pitched 13 scoreless innings in his last two starts and is now an impressive 6-4 with a 2.90 ERA in 10 starts and 17 relief appearances this season. He was 16-30 with a 5.39 ERA over the previous three years. Quantrill will likely start in Milwaukee next weekend.

Quantrill dominated the Nationals on Tuesday, holding them scoreless over a season-high seven innings. He scattered four hits and did not walk a batter while collecting five strikeouts on an efficient 61 of 91 pitches for strikes. The 31-year-old right-hander has allowed one run or fewer in each of his last four starts. He’ll take a 3.13 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, and a 54/22 K/BB ratio across 77 2/3 innings into a start against the Angels in Texas on Sunday.

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 was outstanding, allowing just two hits and a walk while striking out seven and throwing 45-of-69 pitches before exiting. He blanked the Tampa Bay lineup before Junior Caminero was able to procure and RBI triple in the sixth. It’s safe to say that this has basically come out of nowhere considering Quantrill’s struggles in 2026, but he’s done a nice job with the Texas staff, and his ERA on the season is now 3.84 to pair with a 4-3 record. He’ll get a chance to do it again versus the Astros on Sunday.

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.