'Never a doubt' for Peavy

Upon arriving in the White Sox' clubhouse Sunday the morning after his first start with the team, pitcher Jake Peavy said one of the things on his agenda was "going to chapel."

He never lost the faith that he would make it back onto a big-league mound this season.

"That was never a doubt in my mind," said the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner, who earned his first American League victory with a 5-inning stint in the Sox' 13-3 win over Kansas City.

"I think when you come over to a new city, a new league, new teammates, a lot of these guys have never seen me pitch until last night," Peavy said. "To put that to rest with (the media) and my teammates and my front-office staff and coaches, that's the biggest relief."

Throwing 47 of 73 pitches for strikes while allowing 3 hits, 3 runs and striking out five, the two-time all-star right-hander said he would have come back out for the sixth inning if the White Sox had let him.

"I respect that decision," he said.

Peavy said the aftermath of Saturday's outing was "spring-training" soreness.

"I would say I'm more sore than I think I'm going to be in April, May next year," Peavy said. "It's to be expected. I'm looking forward, and I do have an extra day between starts because of the off-day, which will do nothing but help.

"The biggest thing for me is my ankle. You get nagging injuries that are just nagging aches and pains. And I was coming off a torn tendon, which is a significant injury. At one time they were going, man, this thing could cause surgery if it doesn't progress a little better. Last night I competed in a major-league game and did everything I should be able to do. I fielded a bunt and threw 65, 70 pitches."

Catcher A.J. Pierzynski was impressed.

"You see the ability, you see the pitches that are there to win a lot of games," he said. "Obviously he's a little bit rusty, I'm sure he wasn't as sharp as he wanted to be, but you still see the stuff and you see the ability to make quality pitches against big-league hitters and get strikeouts.

"His velocity was there, his slider was there. His location was a little bit off, but he still had a few strikeouts and still got some outs when he needed to."

Long way to go: Manager Ozzie Guillen had a couple of nice notes on the first big-league hit by Tyler Flowers, who connected for a single through the shortstop hole Saturday as the designated hitter.

"Well, he's only got 2,999 to make the Hall of Fame," Guillen quipped.

But seriously, folks -

"It's a day and at-bat he's never going to forget," Guillen said. "It's something you always dream or try to make as a goal to be in the big leagues. I know it's a thrill for him, and there's one thing about it - nobody can take that thing away from him."