Unlike Jose Quintana, Kodai Senga rewarded for quality start as Mets beat Atlanta

Even the Mets’ bright spots come with dark clouds these days.

Take lefthander Jose Quintana, whom the Mets signed to a two-year, $26 million contract before the season.

Quintana was out until July 20 because of rib cage surgery, but since his return, he has been a reliable starter even as the Mets have thrown in the towel on the 2023 season.

Only problem: He is 0-4 in his five starts.

How is that possible, given his 3.03 ERA, including one earned run in six innings on Saturday night — after the Mets had allowed 21 runs to Atlanta that afternoon?

Because the Mets do not hit when he pitches. In those four decisions, they have scored two, one, zero and zero runs, including Saturday night’s 6-0 loss to Atlanta.

Quintana’s performance down the stretch is not irrelevant. He has one year left on his deal, and the Mets need all the stability they can get in their rotation.

He and Sunday night’s starter, Kodai Senga, figure to be big parts of that plan next season. So the 34-year-old Colombian’s quality starts are a positive regardless of whether he gets rewarded for them.

Senga did his part in following Quintana’s quality start with one of his own in a 7-6 victory over Atlanta at Citi Field that salvaged the final game of the series after three losses by a combined 34-3.

Senga has not allowed more than three earned runs in a start in two months, but he allowed three in the first inning Sunday, all of them driven in by Marcell Ozuna’s double to rightfield.

But Senga (9-6), pitching in front of his son and daughter for only the second time as a Met, settled down after that. He allowed only the three early runs, four hits and two walks in six innings, striking out seven.

“He didn’t have a feel for [his forkball], obviously,” manager Buck Showalter said. “But he’s got enough secondary pitches to survive.”

The Mets won it behind a six-run fifth inning in which 11 men batted. It was an odd rally in which two runs were forced in on walks and another on catcher’s interference.

The Mets led 7-3 at that point and held on after Matt Olson’s 43rd home run, a two-run shot, made it 7-6 in the eighth.

So again, make that good news from Quintana and Senga on an otherwise dreary weekend for the Mets.

“I felt really good out there,” Quintana said after Saturday night’s game. “Tough lineup, so all the at-bats are a challenge. Early on, you need to attack the zone and change speeds. Everything worked really good out there.

“It’s frustrating to get a loss, but you want to keep going.”

Quintana was particularly proud that for the first time since his return, he passed the 100-pitch mark, throwing 104.

“I felt a little tired at the end,” he said. ”[I was] thinking one pitch at a time, execution and get outs. And I did.”

Francisco Lindor said of Quintana: “He has done an amazing job and we haven’t backed him up. So it is tough. You see him competing, executing, and we don’t put up runs for him.”

Showalter said he was impressed with Quintana’s competitiveness and added that seeing what he has done since his return is a reminder of what the Mets missed in not having him for more than half the season.

Everything the Mets do in the next 1 1⁄2 months is about 2024 and beyond, so fans likely will overlook wins and losses when it comes to someone like Quintana, with the assumption a better team around him will take care of that — eventually.

But still .  .  . 0-4 and a 3.03 ERA. The dissonance is another maddening thing the Mets can point to in a season gone wrong.

Said Showalter, “Wish we could have done something to reward him for it.”

Maybe next year.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.