One key to the success of the Milwaukee Brewers this season is they’ve avoided long losing streaks and don’t savor victories very long.
“They turn the page really quick,” Milwaukee left-hander Jose Quintana said. “If we get a win, we’re on to the next step.”
The Brewers will need to turn the page on a rare loss when they take on the visiting Miami Marlins in the second game of their three-game series on Saturday evening.
Miami posted a 5-1 win in the opener on Friday as the Brewers were held to four hits while committing three errors.
Entering the series, the Brewers had won 12 of 13 games, including their final seven games before the All-Star break and the first four after the break to surpass the Chicago Cubs for first place in the National League Central.
The streak ended with a 1-0 loss at the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday, but Milwaukee produced 17 hits in a 10-2 win against the Mariners in the series finale on Wednesday.
“These guys are amazing,” Quintana said. “They want to stay hungry all the time.”
Quintana (7-3, 3.49 ERA) is scheduled to take the mound for the Brewers on Saturday after making his past two starts against the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
He did not receive a decision after allowing one run and two hits in six innings of his team’s 3-2 win in 10 innings in Milwaukee on July 9, and then earned the victory in Los Angeles after surrendering four runs and four hits in six innings of a 6-5 win last Sunday.
Quintana has made four starts in his career against the Marlins and is 3-1 with a 2.42 ERA.
The Marlins plan to start right-hander Janson Junk on Saturday. Junk (4-2, 3.09) has made six starts among his 11 appearances this season.
After tossing seven shutout innings in a 6-0 win against the Baltimore Orioles on July 12, he wasn’t as sharp in his most recent outing last Sunday against the Kansas City Royals, surrendering six runs (four earned) and six hits in five innings of a 7-4 loss.
“It wasn’t our cleanest game,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “We gave away too many extra outs. We didn’t take care of the baseball like we have been. It led to some extra stress on Janson.”
Junk hadn’t allowed an earned run through 18 consecutive innings before the Royals scored three runs in the fourth. The final four batters in the inning connected on the first pitch.
“They were attacking — I have to be better at realizing that,” Junk said. “It was just a lot of fastballs that missed too much of the plate, and the top of their lineup’s good. During that fourth inning, that was pretty much the bulk of it that did the damage.”
Junk said he simply has to execute his pitches better, especially with runners on base.
“When I want to go [inside], miss in. When I want to go away, miss away, instead of the ones that leak over a little bit and find barrel. That’s the biggest takeaway,” he said. “I thought my breaking stuff was good, but those early-count fastballs kind of killed me those two innings.”
Junk hasn’t faced the Brewers in his career.
–Field Level Media
