Neither team involved in tonight's makeup game needed to make it up, but the White Sox found a way to make it useful nevertheless.
Marcus Semien -- who wasn't around when the Sox and Blue Jays were rained out on June 12, making this one necessary -- certainly belonged in this one. He hit a two-run shot for his first career homer, and when paired with a solo shot by Avisail Garcia, it gave Jose Quintana a well-deserved victory. On top of that, by going 7⅓ innings, Quintana now has a decent shot of reaching 200 on the season, as he finished tonight with 193.
Granted, the Sox should've beat Toronto by far more than one run. J.A. Happ didn't happen to have a whole lot, especially after the Sox realized that he didn't have a breaking ball he liked.
They struggled to come up with the big two-out hit. Garcia stranded two in the first with a strikeout. Paul Konerko left them loaded with a weak lineout in the second. Josh Phegley's can of corner stranded runners on the corners in the third. Konerko couldn't bring home a runner on second, grounding out to end the fourth.
Yet the Sox did enough to stay ahead throughout. Semien started it in the second inning by crushing a Happ mistake (an 0-2 fastball after two fastballs, and one he didn't elevate enough) just inside the left-field foul pole for a two-run shot. After J.P. Arencibia started the fifth with a solo shot, Garcia answered with a backspin-laden opposite-field homer to lead off the sixth, making it a 3-1 game.
The insurance run came in handy when Quintana ran out of gas in the eighth. He gave up a first-pitch double to Kevin Pillar, then missed twice on two-strike high-fastball attempts to Ryan Goins. Goins fouled off the first one, but he lined the second one to left for an RBI single.
Dayan Viciedo kept it from being an RBI double by cutting it off, and that was the first of two nice plays that changed the complexion of the inning. Quintana faced one more batter, and thwarted Anthony Gose's sac bunt attempt by throwing to second for the force.
Quintana departed in favor of Matt Lindstrom, who gave up a single on the only pitch he threw. Robin Ventura then called on Donnie Veal, who got Adam Lind to ground out to third, but weakly enough to move the runners 90 feet. In came Nate Jones, who shook off Saturday's disaster with a groundout to escape the jam.
Addison Reed followed Jones' lead, working around a leadoff walk to record his 39th save out of 62 victories. It preserved Quintana's ninth win, and he certainly did enough, limiting the Jays to two runs on five hits and a walk, while striking out six.
Record: 62-94 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights