Extra cheese with that? Quintana on a pizza roll

CINCINNATI – “Pizza Hut.”

“Pizza? What?”

Whoever it was calling from the visitors bullpen at Great American Ball Park before the Cubs-Reds game last weekend seemed confused for only a second or two before playing along the wise-guy baseball writer who had answered the bullpen phone when it rang in the Cubs dugout.

“This is Pizza Hut. Can I take your order?” said the writer, who assumed he was talking to a stadium worker testing the phones. “You want sausage or pepperoni?”

“Pepperoni”

“Large or medium? Deep dish or regular crust.”

“Large. Regular crust.”

“We’ll get that right to you. Thank you very much.”

“OK. Thanks.”

A few minutes later, Cubs pitcher Jose Quintana jogged in from the bullpen and headed through the dugout on the way to the clubhouse.

“Was that one of you guys on the phone?” he said, looking at a cabal of writers.

Quintana? No way.

The most serious, game-faced starting pitcher on the Cubs’ pitching staff this side of Jon Lester? The last one anyone would expect to joke in the middle of a workday – especially as he fought through his longest drought as a Cub?

But then a funny thing happened on the way to another rough start for Quintana.

The day after the pizza gag, he pitched six scoreless innings to beat the Reds for his first win in 10 starts – ending a particularly ugly six-start stretch (6.75 ERA).

Somebody arranged for the clubhouse manager to deliver a pepperoni pizza to Quintana as he talked to reporters postgame, and he stopped in mid-sentence to accept the pie, laughing.

“Bullpen pizza!” he said.

Then five days later the lefty did it again, pitching seven innings in Pittsburgh, retiring the final 11 Pirates he faced, for another win – giving him the Cubs’ only two victories since they hit the road.

It couldn’t be the pizza. Could it?

Quintana said he’s putting the onus on himself to help pick up the load in the absence of Cole Hamels (oblique injury) and to help the team shake its five-week malaise.

But then he also said this when he was done with postgame interviews Thursday and a writer told him he’d see him back in Chicago:

“Don’t forget the pizza.”

DID YOU KNOW

• Cubs shortstop Javy Baez is only the third player in history to make All-Star starts at both second base and shortstop in his career – the first to do it in back to back seasons. The others: Philadelphia’s Granny Hamner (1952, ’54) and Baltimore’s Bobby Grich (1972, ’76, ’82).
• When the last-place Reds beat the first-place Brewers Thursday, it not only restored a share of first place for the Cubs, but it meant the five teams in the NL Central were separated top-to-bottom by only 3½ games – the tightest the division has been clumped this late in the season in its 26-year history.

THAT’S WHAT HE SAID

“I’ve always been a believer that coaches get all the blame and not enough credit. Just because we played bad doesn’t mean it’s the manager’s fault. Joe’s done a great job of managing. ... It’s just an easy thing to point out. He’s an easy target.” — Cubs ace Jon Lester on the heat Joe Maddon is taking.

“Believe me, he’d make a nice left tackle.” — Maddon on umpire Joe West, who blocked him from going after Pirates manager Clint Hurdle Thursday in Pittsburgh.

“He’s stupid as f---.” — Cubs reliever Pedro Strop on Reds outfielder Yasiel Puig, who next sees the Cubs July 15 at Wrigley Field, just 16 days after he initiated a bench-clearing incident in Cincinnati.

HIDDEN FIGURES

1 – Cubs who have won All-Star MVP honors. Bill Madlock shared the award in 1975 with the Mets’ Jon Matlack.

12 – Consecutive winning months for the Cubs until going 14-15 in June. It was the franchise’s longest streak since 1905-1911 (38 months).

3 – Kris Bryant’s All-Star selections – more than any Cubs third baseman since Ron Santo had nine from 1963-73. Stan Hack (1938-43) is the only other with at least three.

10 – Road series lost by the Cubs this year (of 14), already matching their highest total for a season since their last-place 2014 season.