White Sox, Peavy cruise past Indians

Associated Press

cleveland

Jake Peavy needed an easy night to take some stress off his overworked right arm.

The White Sox gave him one.

They staked Peavy to an early eight-run lead and he cruised for seven innings on Thursday night as Chicago rocked Cleveland 8-1 to split the four-game series against the AL Central-leading Indians.

Adam Dunn hit his 10th homer, a two-run shot in the first inning and the White Sox tacked on six runs in the fourth off Jeanmar Gomez (2-2). That eased the burden on Peavy, who threw 122 pitches in his previous start and pitched nine innings in the two before that.

Peavy (4-1) allowed seven hits, struck out five and had little difficulty in subduing the Indians, who didn’t get a runner past second base until the seventh. He has been overpowering in his last five starts, posting a 1.36 ERA.

“I had great stuff,” Peavy said. “It wasn’t an easy start by any means, but to have a start where you can be aggressive and throw a lot of strikes and not have to really work hard was nice. If you could draw it up like that for all 30-some starts, it would be a perfect world.”

Alexei Ramirez had three hits and Alejandro De Aza drove in two runs for the White Sox, who had only one extra-base hit — Dunn’s 425-foot blast off Gomez, who was tagged for eight runs and nine hits in 62/3 innings.

After playing in seven straight games decided by two runs or fewer, the White Sox finally had a somewhat relaxed nine innings.

“It was good to come back with these two wins after losing the doubleheader,” Peavy said. “You have to beat the team in first place in your division.”

Peavy was only in trouble once before allowing a run in the seventh.

Travis Hafner led off Cleveland’s second with a single, and one out later, Shin-Soo Choo singled. Michael Brantley followed by hitting a line drive up the middle that Peavy somehow trapped against his stomach before throwing to first to force Choo for an inning-ending double play.

Brantley just shook his head and laughed as he headed back to the dugout.

“I tried to get in front of it,” Peavy said. “I kind of got it right in the chest. I don’t think it hit my glove until it rolled in.”

Peavy got ahead of nearly every Cleveland hitter, preventing the Indians from being too selective.

“He attacked the strike zone,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “He went after guys.”

As Gomez struggled, Indians manager Manny Acta elected not to get anyone up in his overworked bullpen.