Peavy, Sox play spoiler to Tigers' playoff march

Posted October 02, 2009 11:00 pm

Scot Gregor

The White Sox can only wonder how good Jake Peavy is going to be in 2010.

"I still don't feel 100 percent," Peavy told reporters Friday night after shutting down the first-place Tigers at Comerica Park in an 8-0 White Sox victory.

When he was still property of the San Diego Padres earlier in the season, Peavy landed on the disabled list with a strained tendon in his right ankle.

The National League's 2007 Cy Young Award winner was close to getting back on the mound when the Sox acquired him in a July 31 trade, but Peavy went down again after taking a line drive off his pitching (right) elbow in an Aug. 24 rehab start with Class AAA Charlotte.

Instead of shutting it down for the season, Peavy carried on and has shown why he's expected to be the ace of next year's rotation.

After pitching 7 shutout innings against Detroit at U.S. Cellular Field last Saturday, Peavy delivered 8 more dominant innings in Friday's win.

In 3 starts for the White Sox this season, Peavy is 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA. He also has 18 strikeouts in 20 innings.

So much for that theory about Peavy being overmatched in the American League.

Against the Tigers, Peavy worked out of jams in the first inning and again in the fourth, while the Sox' offense put up single runs in the first, fourth and fifth before knocking out Detroit starter Edwin Jackson with 5 runs in the sixth inning.

"The one thing you have to have when you pitch against a guy like Peavy, your pitcher has to pitch good," Detroit manager Jim Leyland told reporters. "(Jackson) just made way too many bad pitches in the middle of the plate."

Detroit went into the game with a 2-game lead over the second-place Twins with three to play, but that edge is down to a game after Minnesota built a 10-0 lead against Kansas City and held on for a 10-7 win Friday night.

Peavy was initially supposed to pitch at last-place Cleveland on Wednesday, but he was moved back to face the Tigers.

Before the game, a Detroit reporter asked White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen why he made the switch.

"I'm going to make this clear to all those freaking people out there," Guillen said. "The only reason we pitched Peavy here is because that was his turn. I see a lot of comments about we bring the best guys to face Detroit. I don't care if we face Detroit or not.

"I don't. I wish we played a tripleheader today and we leave tomorrow from this town. That's my hope. We play three games today, I would go for it."

Scot Gregor's game tracker White Sox 8, Tigers 0 Peavy power: After pitching 7 shutout innings and beating Detroit at the Cell last Saturday, Jake Peavy followed up with 8 innings of scoreless ball vs. the Tigers Friday night. Pods in 2010? That remains to be seen, but Scott Podsednik figures to be playing somewhere. The 33-year-old outfielder led off the game with a home run and was 3-for-4, raising his season average to .306. Pressure's on: Detroit has led the AL Central since May 10. If the Tigers can't stave off the Twins, they'd be the first team in major-league history to hold the lead that long before blowing it in the final week.