Peavy faces surgery as Sox carve up Royals

Posted July 09, 2010 11:00 pm

Scot Gregor

Jake Peavy is ready to be a guinea pig, not that he really has a choice.

On Wednesday, the White Sox' 29-year-old starting pitcher is going to have surgery at Rush University Hospital-Oak Park, where Dr. Tony Romeo will repair the latissimus dorsi muscle Peavy detached in Tuesday night's start against the Angels.

"Nobody's had the surgery in baseball that we know of," Peavy said on Friday before the Sox beat the Royals 8-2 at U.S. Cellular Field. "This has happened in baseball, but not completely detached. So I guess I'm a guinea pig and we'll see how it turns out."

Peavy was going to use the upcoming all-star break to gather medical opinions, but he sped up the process.

"We consulted with quite a few doctors," Peavy said of a list that included Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Lewis Yocum. "The MRI disc was seen and a bunch of Fed Ex packages later ... it was a unanimous decision."

The obvious question is: when is Peavy going to be able to pitch again? The early estimate is seven months.

"We hope to be up and throwing by spring training," Peavy said. "Obviously, this is uncharted territory because it's not common. While (pitchers) have torn lats, they've never completely torn off the bone with no attachments left. And that's where we're at. We're hoping, around the start of the season, to be back in action."

There's been plenty of speculation that Peavy is never going to pitch again.

"My future is not in jeopardy," he said. "I know where I'm going to be next year and the year after that, and I know I'm excited to be here in Chicago. I'm excited for what the team's doing and anxious to get back as soon as possible."

There has also been plenty of discussion about the cause of the injury.

Peavy had an MRI on his shoulder in mid-June, which came back clean. His June 17 start at Pittsburgh was pushed back two days, and Peavy was resting his shoulder as much as possible between starts before blowing out his lat.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said he had a long talk with Peavy in Pittsburgh, trying to convince him to go on the disabled list.

"I argued my point for two hours," Guillen said. "Our general manager (Kenny Williams) and our pitching coach (Don Cooper) were on the top of that. We addressed the problem."

With mechanics one major-league describes as "violent," Peavy likely would have had a more serious shoulder problem had he kept pitching this season. But the detached latissimus muscle came from out of the blue.

"I don't hold anything back or try to be a tough guy," Peavy said. "I even hired outside help (a massage therapist) to try to stay healthy. There's nothing that any of us could have done different, from the doctors to the trainers. It's one of those things; it (lat) was time to go.

"Hindsight is 20-20 of course. I've never been hurt (like this), so it's hard to say that what you're feeling would lead to something tragic like this happening. If I had known, then obviously I would have backed off it. It was just a grabbing sensation, nothing really sharp. It got sharp in a hurry."

<p class="factboxheadblack">Scot Gregor's game tracker</p>

<p class="News">White Sox 8, Royals 2</p>

<p class="News"><b>Keep on pitching:</b> Mark Buehrle delivered the Sox' 26th quality start in the last 29 games, pitching 7 scoreless innings. In his major-league debut, Jeff Marquez gave up 2 runs in the ninth inning. They were the first earned runs allowed by a White Sox pitcher in 31 innings.</p>

<p class="News"><b>Power squared:</b> A.J. Pierzynski hit 2 home runs in a game for the first time since July 2, 2008. He also had 4 RBI.</p>

<p class="News"><b>Chasing 400:</b> Andruw Jones nearly hit his 400th career home run in the second inning. He settled for a 2-run single off the left-field fence.</p>

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