Jake Peavy found two things he had really been missing — run support and a victory — and helped the first-place White Sox improve to a season-best nine games over .500.Peavy ended a personal four-game losing streak and earned his first win since May 26 by pitching one-run ball into the eighth as the White Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-2 on Friday night.
“It’s a whole different feeling, I promise you that,” Peavy said. “When you get a lead in a ballgame as a starting pitcher, it changes the whole way you go about things. I know it shouldn’t. … You know you have room to wiggle a little bit. You are more aggressive and it’s just nice.”
Peavy (7-5) was 0-4 in his previous four starts — throwing two complete games — when the Sox scored only two total runs during those losses.The White Sox got three runs in the fifth Friday night with the help of two Toronto errors and A.J. Pierzynski hit his 16th homer in the sixth as the Sox won their fourth straight.
“He could have nine, 10, 11 wins right now if we could’ve scored some runs for him,” Pierzynski said. “But it just seems like every time he pitches, we haven’t been able to get a hit or drive a guy in or whatever it is. Tonight, we didn’t do a great job of it, but we got enough hits and scored enough runs because he pitched well enough to get the win.”
Peavy allowed five hits in 7 1/3 innings, walked two and struck out seven. He threw 115 pitches left to a big ovation after retiring the leadoff hitter in the eighth. Game-time temperature was 91.
“I wasn’t on top of my game by any means, but we battled,” Peavy said. “There’s no doubt, it’s hot. I threw very little in the bullpen. I didn’t even wear the clothes I was going to pitch in to warm up in simply because the humidity and the heat. But playing in it, you get accustomed to it.”
Addison Reed earned his 13th save in 14 chances despite giving up a run in the ninth. He walked leadoff hitter Edwin Encarnacion, gave up a single to Adam Lind and a sacrifice fly to Yunel Escobar before getting Rajai Davis to ground into a game-ending double play.Lind hit his seventh homer in the second to give Toronto and lefty Aaron Laffey the early lead before the White Sox got three in the fifth with the aid of two Blue Jays errors.Alexei Ramirez, Gordon Beckham and Kevin Youkilis had RBI in the fifth inning, and Pierzynski made it a three-run cushion with his 16th homer in the sixth. Laffey (0-1) yielded eight hits and four runs — three earned — in six innings with a walk and four strikeouts.
“He keeps the game under control, throws a lot of strikes, doesn’t get rattled in certain situations and is not going to pitch away from contact,” Toronto manager John Farrell said of Laffey. “They were able to bunch some hits together in that fifth inning, and we contributed with some of the defense, but overall he’s done a good job for us.”
Dayan Viciedo led off the fifth with a double and scored on Ramirez’s single. Ramirez made it to second on the throw and went to third when Toronto left fielder Davis’ toss sailed over the head of catcher J.P. Arencibia for an error.Beckham then followed with a bloop single to left between three defenders to give the White Sox a 2-1 lead and made second when third baseman Brett Lawrie made an errant flip attempt to Davis, hoping to get the ball back to the infield. Beckham advanced to third on a fly ball and scored an RBI single by Youkilis. It was Youkilis’ seventh RBI in the four-game homestand, his first with the White Sox since a trade from Boston last month.
“We didn’t help our cause here tonight,” Farrell said. “I thought we hit some balls against Peavy fairly hard. Didn’t find a hole, but he did a very good job against us. Not many opportunities. He pretty much kept us in check.”
NOTES—Phil Humber, on the DL with a strained elbow, made a rehab start Friday night, pitching for Triple-A Charlotte. He gave up five hits, including a homer, and two runs in four innings. … Pierzynski is two homers shy of matching his career high of 18 set in 2005. … The Blue Jays are 24-10 against the White Sox since 2008.