Yankees 4, White Sox 0: Kuroda, lefties beat Peavy

Jake Peavy pitched another complete game. Jake Peavy lost another complete game.

Peavy went the distance for the fourth time this season, but it's the third one spoiled by a lack of run support. The White Sox have scored just two runs over Peavy's last four starts.

But this was the first time that Peavy didn't feel like he should have won, because he did have a noticeable weakness -- he struggled to locate the ball against left-handed hitters.

Yankees lefties did all the damage against Peavy. Curtis Granderson belted a homer off him in the first. Dewayne Wise smoked an RBI double to the right-center gap in the second. In his next time up, Wise pulled a homer to right, and Robin Cano followed suit in the sixth.

New York's left-handers and switch-hitters went 8-for-21 against Peavy, including a 3-for-3 day for Wise. Righties were held hitless over 10 at-bats. Peavy pitched well besides those three homers, but ... you know, three homers.

And it was three homers too many, considering how well Hiroki Kuroda pitched for the Yankees.

The Sox had their best chance to jump on Kuroda in the first. Alejandro De Aza led off with a single, but was caught stealing. Adam Dunn tried to re-start the rally by drawing a walk, and Paul Konerko singled him to third. But Alex Rios struck out to end the threat, and they wouldn't get their next hit until the seventh. The Sox mustered just three singles total.

Kuroda settled down after a rough start, and figured out his three pitches by the end. Joe Girardi lifted him after the seventh, but he probably could have pitched all day.

Here's another way to say how good he was -- Kuroda chose to end his consecutive batters retired streak. He set down 15 White Sox in a row, but plunked Kevin Youkilis with the first pitch with two outs in the sixth. That came the inning after Jake Peavy hit Derek Jeter in the thigh with a fastball, which came after Wise's homer.

I don't know if Peavy's was intentional -- he was trying to throw low-and-in, and let out some major self-reflexive profanity when he missed/"missed" his spot, so he could have just lost his composure and overthrew a fastball. There was less doubt about Kuroda's, but it hit Youkilis in the elbow armor, and he took his base without incident. No warnings were issued, no further drama ensued. Baseball policed itself.

Bullet points:

• Kevin Youkilis struggled with the sun, losing a pair of high pop-ups in his territory. One landed in foul territory, and the other landed in Alexei Ramirez's glove thanks to a late rescue effort.
• In honor of his friend and mentor Darrel Akerfelds, the San Diego Padres bullpen coach who lost a fight with pancreatic cancer last Sunday, Peavy is donating $100 to pancreatic cancer research for every strikeout in every MLB game today. Peavy and Kuroda matched each other with 11 strikeouts, and the Sox struck out 13 times on the day, which means that Peavy donated $2,400 to pancreatic cancer research from this game alone.
  

Record: 42-36 | Box score | Play-by-play