Diamondbacks 8, White Sox 6: Jose Quintana unravels

Followed-from-work bullet points:

*A traditionally dogged 2017 White Sox effort couldn’t overcome the game’s strangest development: the unraveling of Jose Quintana. After he retired the first 10 to start the game, he started leaving fastballs over the plate.

In the fourth, Quintana gave up a double, double and single to tie the game at 2, which OK. It was the middle of the Arizona order.

The fifth inning was less explicable. First, he hit Brandon Drury with an 0-2 fastball. Then he left a 1-1 fastball over the middle of the plate and lefty Jake Lamb took him deep to left for a 4-2 D-backs lead. He came back to strikeout Chris Iannetta, then didn’t retire any of the other four batters he faced. After going 0-for-10 to start the game, the Diamondbacks finished off Quintana by going 8-for-10.

*Anthony Swarzak couldn’t stanch the flow of runs, giving up a sac fly and a pair of singles for two more runs on Quintana’s tab. The second single came on a failed diving catch attempt by Avisail Garcia, who recovered quickly enough to throw out Drury at second to bring the six-run inning to a merciful end.

*Those two runs ended up making the difference, as the White Sox rallied with a pair of runs in both the seventh and eighth innings. Jose Abreu, who had a monster game, hit a two-run shot in the seventh, then followed a Melky Cabrera RBI groundout with a run-scoring single in the eighth, making him 4-for-4 at the time.

*Alas, Abreu finished the game 4-for-5. Cabrera drew a two-out walk against Fernando Rodney to keep hope alive, but Abreu hit a hard grounder to second, ending the game.

*The Sox built Quintana a 2-0 lead through 3 ¹⁄₂ innings. Leury Garcia turned on a hanging Randall Delgado changeup and smoked a liner just over the right-field wall for a solo shot in the second, and Abreu scored on a double play in the fourth.

*The offense had the kind of performance you might expect on an Arizona bullpen day -- six runs on 11 hits and three walks. Quintana just couldn’t make the support stand up on its own.

*Oh, and Yolmer Sanchez made a great diving stab and throw to take away a single from Paul Goldschmidt.

Record: 20-25 | Box score | Highlights