Rays rout Peavy, White Sox 10-2 to cap 9-1 trip

Posted April 22, 2010 11:00 pm

Scot Gregor

After Wednesday night's demoralizing 12-0 defeat to Tampa Bay, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen gave a pep talk mainly directed at a slew of slumping hitters.

Guillen's next chat should be with his supposedly strong starting rotation.

Outside of John Danks, Sox starters haven't scared anybody so far.

And the alleged ace, Jake Peavy, delivered another stinker in Thursday night's 10-2 loss to the Rays.

After the White Sox lost for the sixth time in seven games to fall to 5-11 - their worst start since 1997 - Guillen had a difficult time finding any positives.

"If they don't believe we believe in them, they're wrong," Guillen said. "I don't think they believe they're good. When you come here with all of your hopes very high and all of the sudden you go back home with the same results, it's getting old. To me, it's getting old, very old.

"I'm not going to come here every day and be asked why we're not hitting, why we're not producing. I know this is my job, but I'm tired, mentally tired, about watching the same baseball game day in and day out. How many games have we had, 16? I feel like right now like I'm already going to the (bleep) all-star break."

Peavy (0-1) is a two-time all-star, but he struggled for the third time in four starts while allowing 7 runs on 7 hits and a career-high 7 walks in 41/3 innings.

The third inning was particularly painful, as Tampa Bay scored 3 runs on 2 hits and 4 walks. With the bases loaded and no outs, Evan Longoria grounded back to Peavy for what should have been an easy 1-2-3 double play.

Instead, Peavy blamed himself for making a poor throw home and the Sox only got the lead runner (Jason Bartlett) at the plate.

Peavy proceeded to walk Carlos Pena to force in a run and Pat Burrell followed with a 2-run single.

"If I make a better throw at home and we get rid of that ball and turn the double play, I get out of that inning and you are talking about 20 or 30 less pitches I had to throw," said Peavy, who threw 108 pitches overall and 42 in the third. "It's still a 2-1 game and it could have very easily went the other way. That changed the momentum of the game."

Peavy made some mechanical changes, and the velocity on his fastball did increase from 90-91 mph to 95.

"I'm very happy with my stuff; my stuff was as good as it can get," Peavy said. "But location was a tough thing. Walking seven guys is unacceptable."

Scot Gregor's game tracker

Start and stop: After Jake Peavy's forgettable outing, Sox starting pitchers are 4-7 with a 5.58 ERA this season.

Can't be serious: The Sox are 0-4-1 in five series this year. They split a four-game set at Toronto last week.

Jammed clutch: The White Sox continued to struggle with runners in scoring position Thursday, going 1-for-5. They were 1-for-15 with RISP in the series and are 5-for-40 over their last seven games.