Peavy praises White Sox offense
Compared to Indians counterpart Derek Lowe, White Sox starter Jake Peavy was pretty good Saturday.
Lowe came in with the American League’s best ERA at 2.15. He gave up 8 runs on 10 hits in 2 innings and now sports a 3.25 ERA.
Peavy came in with a 2.39 ERA, third lowest in the AL. The Sox’ right-hander was tagged for 7 runs on 6 hits in 6 innings, raising his ERA to 3.07.
It was not a great day for Peavy, but he was focusing on the positives after the Sox trounced Cleveland.
“That’s a great win, I can promise you that,” Peavy said. “You will never hear me complain about us getting a win, beating a first-place team that we’re trying to catch.
“There’s no doubt — the boys swung the bats just outstanding off a guy who’s been unbelievable up to this point.”
The White Sox jumped on Lowe for 4 runs in the first inning, but the Indians answered with 5 off Peavy in the third. They added 2 more in the fifth inning to cut the Sox’ lead to 8-7, but that was as close as Cleveland would get.
It was a bad day to be pitching at warm, windy U.S. Cellular Field, not that Peavy was making excuses.
“I had great stuff today,” he said. “I just beat myself there in that third inning with a one-out walk and then (Lou) Marson dumped a ball in, then I hit (Shin-Soo) Choo with two strikes.”
Jason Kipnis, a Glenbrook North High School product, hit a 2-run homer off Peavy in the third inning and another 2-run shot in the fifth.
“I mean Kipnis just got two balls right there where the ball was going,” Peavy said. “The ball goes everywhere in this ballpark. You get some off-speed pitches and you backspin them and, you get them up, they’re going to go out. He hit two pitches out.
“Other than that, I tried to battle and keeping that lead was all I could do. I learned a little bit from that (May 15) Detroit start with letting it get away from me. The game did not get away from me mentally today, and I’m excited about that.
“But this isn’t about me. It’s about what the boys did swinging the bats vs. some very good pitching.”