TORONTO _ The White Sox have had their eye on Carson Fulmer to be a member of their rotation since they drafted him eighth overall in 2015, and he's ready to try to make it stick this season.
The right-hander jumped off to a decent start in that quest Wednesday in a 4-3 victory over the Blue Jays. He gave up three earned runs on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts over five-plus innings.
Jose Abreu hit his second home run of the season and the Sox's 14th over five games to give the Sox the lead in the eighth inning.
The Sox awarded Fulmer a spot in their rotation despite a bumpy spring in which he posted an 11.81 ERA over five Cactus League starts. But with the rebuilding team's focus still on the development of their young players, they're going to give Fulmer room to grow.
"(Pitching coach Don Cooper and Rick Renteria) really fought for this kid and wanted to make sure he got this opportunity going forward," Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. "Frankly it's part of what excites you about where we are right now. ... Being able to see the guys develop in a way that shows they can be part of that championship team helps invigorate you as well."
Fulmer had 15 outings and five starts with the Sox over the last two seasons, but he made his first Opening-Day roster this year.
After he pitched three scoreless innings Wednesday, Justin Smoak and Curtis Granderson opened the fourth with back-to-back doubles that Sox outfielders Adam Engel and Avisail Garcia couldn't finish plays on. Smoak scored on Russell Martin's groundout to tie it 1-1.
With the Sox leading 3-1, Fulmer gave up hits to Josh Donaldson and Smoak to open the sixth, and Renteria pulled him after 73 pitches in favor of left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer. The Blue Jays hit a pair of RBI singles off Bummer to tie the game.
Fulmer had a few strong starts last September, and he said his goal is to continue that success with a quality start every outing this season. He struggled this spring with making an out pitch when he needed to, but he felt like he pushed those issues behind with a final scoreless outing in Arizona.
Hahn said there wasn't a set number of starts the Sox had in mind for Fulmer to make sure he's on the right track.
"It's going to be more about what we're seeing in terms of not only the performance on the field but how it's trending, whether he's able to make certain adjustments we're asking him to in order to potentially unlock more success," Hahn said. "We're going to have to be fluid. We're not necessarily going to allow a guy to be out there and continue to fail repeatedly and potentially harm their own development. But it's not as if we're saying, 'OK, you get three starts. You get 50 plate appearances, and that's it.' "
Danny Farquhar, Nate Jones and Joakim Soria each pitched scoreless outings to help the Sox to victory Wednesday.
Matt Davidson hit his fourth homer of the season in the second inning off Blue Jays right-hander Aaron Sanchez to give the Sox a 1-0 lead.
The Sox benefited from a favorable Major League Baseball review in the fifth inning.
With the bases loaded against Sanchez, Yoan Moncada hit a fly ball to the left-field fence. Curtis Granderson went up to catch it, the ball bounced into the air and Granderson grabbed it as he fell onto his back. It originally was ruled a catch, and Sox players didn't move. But upon review, it was ruled that the ball hit the fence first, so Moncada was awarded a single and the Sox a run.
Sanchez then hit Garcia with a pitch with the bases loaded to send in another run for a 3-1 Sox lead.
