Clutch Quintana stifles Phils, setting stage for Lindor's grand heroics

NEW YORK -- Battled. Competed. Attacked.

The Mets offered a thesaurus to describe the clutch performance of starting left-hander Jose Quintana in the 4-1, NLDS-clinching Game 4 win over the Phillies on Wednesday night at Citi Field.

“It was a masterclass in just ... pitching,” said righty reliever Ryne Stanek.

Quintana delivered five-plus innings, giving up two hits, walking two and recording six strikeouts on 90 pitches.

This, after pitching six scoreless frames in the Mets’ deciding Game 3 against the Brewers in the Wild Card Series last Thursday. He became the fifth pitcher in franchise history to dish consecutive postseason starts of five-plus innings without an earned run. The feat was last accomplished by Tom Glavine in 2006.

“I really trust in my stuff,” said Quintana, who enters free agency this offseason. “Everything worked properly, and I’m really glad to get this series here in New York in front of our fans. It means a lot for us.”

Quintana, 35, also extended his streak of postseason starts without allowing an earned run to three, dating back to Oct. 7, 2022. Only Whitey Ford (four in a row from 1960-61) had a longer such streak since earned runs became official in 1913.

“He battled his [butt] off,” said Game 3 starter Sean Manaea. “It was an unbelievable game against that squad with all the stakes that were here.”

Although Quintana entered Game 4 with a staggering 0.64 ERA in his last seven starts, he struggled to find consistency throughout the season. In August he fought through a 5.63 ERA, including allowing seven runs in five innings on Aug. 20 against Baltimore.

“It’s been hard for him,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “He's been through a lot of ups and downs, and he always finds a way to get the job done. We felt really good coming into this game because of who he is, how much he prepares, how much he cares. And he went out there and did it and gave us a chance. I'm proud of him. Proud of him because he never gave up. Never put his head down. Kept working. He's been amazing for us the whole year.”

Quintana committed to mechanical adjustments to establish consistency in the strike zone and better control counts. He described the edits as “[getting] my [arm] angle a little bit up ... so all the pitches go in the same tunnel.”

The results have stifled opponents.

“He stopped nibbling and he started attacking,” said Mendoza. “He was in the zone, trusting his stuff. He's going to pitch. He's going to move the ball around. He's going to go in and out, up and down, change heat and keep hitters off balance, and he went and did it. He was just getting behind, walking a lot of people. He said, ‘Screw it, I'm going to go after people,’ and he just went with it and fixed it.”

Quintana demonstrated his repertoire with a pitch mix of 33 sinkers, 22 changeups, 13 curveballs, 11 fastballs and 11 slurves. He induced 37 swings and 11 whiffs.

“He’s got an unbelievable changeup and curveball, then mixes the fastball in there,” said Manaea. “When you have all three of those things, it’s a recipe for success. He’s just got that dog mentality out there, he’s going to attack you. He’s been doing it all year, and I’m so happy for him.”

As a snapshot of his effectiveness, Quintana fanned left-handed batters Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber with his changeup. It was his first career start with multiple left-on-left changeup strikeouts.

“We’ve gotten his pitches to move more to try to help some of the stuff,” said pitching coach Jeremy Hefner. “It’s hard to explain, because you can’t explain it objectively. So that’s the difficult part to articulate, but there’s some sort of deception or how his ball comes out of his hand that makes the hitters swing, for some reason. … He doesn’t throw pitches in the zone, he throws around the zone. It must be, for whatever reason, guys see it and they think it’s a strike and they swing at it.”

Quintana believed an adjustment of his mechanics could put his season on track. Then the Mets believed in him to push them through to the next round of the playoffs, and they will face the winner of the NLDS matchup between the Dodgers and Padres.

“That’s what makes him so special, is he flat-out pitches and executes and [he] got big outs when he needed to,” said Stanek. “That was phenomenal.”