Blue Jays 2 - 1 White Sox
Final
  for this game

Blue Jays-White Sox Preview

Jul 7, 2015 - 4:33 AM Although Jose Quintana has baseball's fourth-worst run support average, he hasn't needed much in the past against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays own MLB's best batting average against left-handers but have a poor history against Quintana heading into Tuesday night's matchup with the Chicago White Sox.

Quintana (4-7, 3.81 ERA) has received an average of 2.72 runs of support, getting just one or two runs over seven home starts in which he's gone 1-3 with a 3.52 ERA.

The left-hander is 4-0 with a 1.59 ERA in his last five starts against Toronto, which is batting .302 against southpaws. Edwin Encarnacion is 3 for 10 with a homer against him and Jose Bautista has a homer in seven at-bats.

Josh Donaldson, batting a team-best .343 against lefties, is 2 for 6 off Quintana.

Quintana limited St. Louis to one run in six innings with eight strikeouts to earn last Wednesday's 7-1 road victory.

Chicago (37-43) is hitting an AL-worst .225 against left-handers and will face Felix Doubront (0-0, 3.86), who makes his first start since Sept. 20 for the Chicago Cubs. Doubront went 4-5 with a 4.84 ERA last year in 14 starts for Boston and the Cubs.

He pitched two innings of one-hit relief against the White Sox last season after going 2-1 with a 4.15 ERA in four starts against them over the two previous years. Melky Cabrera is 3 for 8 against him and is the only Chicago hitter with a homer in the matchup.

Toronto (43-42) faced the first of three straight lefties to begin this four-game set, losing 4-2 to Chris Sale on Monday. Sale pitched a six-hitter, though his streak of striking out at least 10 batters ended at eight straight starts.

The White Sox improved to 5-10 when facing left-handed starters with four unearned runs - three in the eighth inning - against former Chicago starter Mark Buehrle, who previously mentored Sale. Buehrle also went the distance in a contest that had no walks and lasted 1 hour, 54 minutes - the shortest game in four years.

"It was fantastic. Both of them were fantastic," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "It was a great ballgame. Got away there at the end."

An error by shortstop Jose Reyes led to Toronto's eighth-inning demise. Jose Abreu hit a tying RBI single and Cabrera followed with a two-run double.

"It was good for the lineup to do that and pick him (Sale) up," Chicago manager Robin Ventura said.

Donaldson and Chris Colabello each had solo homers to give the Blue Jays 112 - baseball's second-highest total. The White Sox are tied with Kansas City for last in the AL at 58.

"They're a powerful lineup, that lineup's not a joke, they've put some crooked numbers on a lot of people," Ventura said.

Cabrera is hitting .400 with a 1.096 OPS over his last 13 games as he continues to turn around his season. He had baseball's third-worst OPS at .557 at the end of May and the worst slugging percentage at .276.






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