Jose Quintana comes fresh off of a 1 hit performance in which he struck out 7 with nothing but a no-decision to show for it. The White Sox managed to score enough runs for a victory last night, inverting the previous night’s score, to make Dylan Axelrod feel better about his no-decision. With Jordan Danks on the way up to join the team the bullpen is back down to 12 arms, which isn’t putting any particular pressure on Quintana to go deep but leaves Ventura with one less reliever to choose from should he need to go to the well early. Quintana’s faced Toronto just once before, he scattered 9 hits across 6 innings for just 2 runs in a 4-0 loss.
The Blue Jays have J.A. Happ on the mound who headed north of the border in a 9 player deal with the Houston Astros. Happ wasn’t great to finish the year but he was able to help take some innings for a team that was in need of just that. A lot of innings? No. Happ isn’t known for going to deep into games and his 2013 isn’t trending him in a new direction so far. His two starts have lasted 5.1 and 5.0 innings respectively so he may not be ready to ride deep just yet. Of course, if the White Sox are going to continue hacking away it might be a bit easier for him to pitch into later innings.
Today’s Lineup:
1.De Aza – CF
2.Keppinger – 3B
3.Rios – RF
4.Konerko – DH
5.Dunn – 1B
6.Viciedo – LF
7.Alexei – SS
8.Tyler F. – C
9.Tyler G. – 2B
With Tyler Greene on the squad, Gillaspie is relegated to platoon work, which is fine, and he’ll sit tonight against the left handed Happ. A flip flop of Dunn and Konerko at 4 and 5 is an interesting twist, and one that makes sense as far as getting Konerko the potential extra chance and Dunn’s plummeting on-base percentage.
Toronto Blue Jays Lineup:
1.Rajai Davis – RF
2.Melky Cabrera – LF
3.J.P. Arencibia – C
4.Edwin Encarnacion – DH
5.Brett Lawrie – 3B
6.Colby Rasmus – CF
7.Mark DeRosa – DH
8.Maicer Izturis – 2B
9.Munenori Kawasaki – SS
Once again no Jose Bautista, which is nice. He continues to deal with back spasms and also, apparently, an ear infection. That’s not so nice.
Where to Watch
Today’s White Sox game will be shown on CSN+ for the Chicago area and will be broadcast on SNET for those north of the border. 6:07 Central start time.