Cubs Quintana makes the Orioles look Q-easy

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The Cubs came out of the shoot after the All Star game break seemingly determined to make amends for a sluggish start to the season. Sunday's 8-0 win over the Orioles completed a three game sweep over the Birds. Newly acquired Jose Quintana was superb in his Cubs debut, going 7 innings while striking out 12 and walking nobody. He allowed three hits. The Cubs continued their offensive barrage. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo homered. Willson Contreras had four hits and Jason Heyward played his best ball since coming over from the Cardinals.

Ya gotta have starts, miles and miles of starts

Quintana's performance comes on the heels of a strong outing by Jake Arrieta. Arrieta has shown signs of being good, if not overpowering lately. I believe good with be good enough for the Cubs. Hopefully Jon Lester will snap out of the doldrums and Kyle Hendricks will return to being his old self. That would give the Cubs four solid starters. If they continue their hot start and John Lackey isn't cutting as a 5^th starter, look for the Cubs to pick up a rental starter.

And on the scoreboard....

I'm doing something I didn't do as much of in the last couple of years, scoreboard watch. The Phillies beat the Brewers 5-2 to cut the Brewers lead to 4.5.

For Holland, the dam has failed

For the White Sox, now that the euphoria of trading for prospects is wearing off here comes the losing. The Sox were swept by the Seattle Mariners over the weekend. Sunday's loss was by a score of 7-6. The Sox had a 5-2 lead, but Derek Holland couldn't hold it. Man, has he turned into a pumpkin.

Sorting through the rubble

Avisail Garcia homered twice for the Sox. This is the stuff to be looking for during the rest of the 2017 Sox season. Like looking for valuables after a natural disaster.

The fact that the Sox had Chris Sale and Jose Quinatna and still couldn't win shows how bad they are. They've loaded up on prospects, now comes the development of the prospects. Outside of Carlos Rodon, the White Sox have zilch in their starting rotation. Pitching coach, Don Cooper, will be a key man going forward in this White Sox rebuild.

And in New York.......

Sometimes it takes a while to sort out trades. Starlin Castro is having a nice season with the Yankees. He's hitting .313 with 12 home runs and 45 driven in. His WAR sits at 1.8. Starlin is a better fit at second than short and is developing more power, making him a more valuable player. Last year's game 7 winner of the world series, Aroldis Chapman has had a tough time this season, at least by his standards. In 21.2 innings Chapman has given up 22 hits and walked 10. I've wondered if the fact that Joe Maddon rode him like a rented mule in last year's playoffs has anything to do with that. Yankees manager, Joe Girardi has also wondered if last year's playoff run has had an impact on Chapman.

Maddon out Dustied Dusty Baker.

More next time.