Washington Nationals: Storylines to watch with series in Wrigley

Jose Quintana makes postseason debut

One of the themes this postseason has been the struggles for pitchers making their debuts. Some of the big name pitchers with those bad games were Luis Severino, Chris Sale, and Taijuan Walker. Will Quintana fall into that category today?

While today is Quintana’s postseason debut, he has pitched in big games before. Last March, he started for Colombia against the USA in the World Baseball Classic and was dominant as he gave up only one hit over 5.2 innings.

Since being traded from the White Sox to the Cubs, Quintana has excelled on the north side of Chicago. He won seven of his 14 starts in the second half and went 2-with a 2.31 ERA in five September starts.

Quintana did only allow nine home runs in the second half, but six of them came at Wrigley Field, including three against the Diamondbacks on August 3. With that being said, he does have an advantage on the Nats and that is a lack of familiarity.

Heading into this game, the only regular who has faced him is Matt Wieters (2-for-3, one double). Two other prominent bench players have had at-bats against him in Adam Lind (2-for-9) and Howie Kendrick (5-for-10, two RBI’s).

In his pitch arsenal, he has mixed results with his offspeed pitches. According to Brooks Baseball, teams hit a mere .156 against his changeup, but had a .412 slugging percentage against his curveball.

Keep an eye on the first few innings. If he gets past those unscathed, he can settle in and it will be a long day for the Washington Nationals offense.