White Sox 4, Blue Jays 2: Finally, Peavy gets support

After Adam Lind took Jake Peavy deep for a solo shot in the second inning, and the Sox didn't come close to putting anything on the board against soft-tossing Aaron Laffey, it looked like it might be another night of no scoring for the Final Vote runner-up.

But Peavy would get the help he needed in the fifth inning. From both sides.

The Cuban Connection jump-started the offense in the fifth. Dayan Viciedo led off with a no-doubt double past Rajai Davis in left, then came around to score on Alexei Ramirez's single in front of Davis. But Davis thought he had a shot at Viciedo at the plate, and the Blue Jays came undone shortly after.

First, Davis' throw was high, which allowed Ramirez to take second on the throw. Then, his throw turned out to be really high. It airmailed the catcher, and Laffey compounded his own problems by not backing up the plate. As the ball rattled around behind the plate, Ramirez took third.

That brought the infield in, and so when Gordon Beckham hit a shallow pop-up down the left field line, a ball that Brett Lawrie might have caught at normal depth dropped behind him for an RBI single. Then Lawrie made matters worse by flipping the ball to Davis, with hopes of a faster, more accurate throw to the infield. But Davis wasn't ready for it, and the ball got past him.

Beckham made it to second on the error, which turned out to be crucial. He tagged to third (Colby Rasmus slipped before making the catch, and didn't make his best possible throw), which brought the infield in once again. And instead of pitching around Kevin Youkilis to get a lefty-lefty situation with Adam Dunn, Laffey came after Youkilis instead, and Youkilis lined a single over Lawrie's head for a 3-1 lead, and his 11th RBI in 11 games with the White Sox.

That would be enough for Peavy to pick up his first win since May 26, and he earned it, settling down after looking shaky early on. Besides LInd's homer, there were a couple weak hits and a few deep counts. But he turned to his slower stuff the third time through, using his changeup or curve to changeup the third time through the order, and used it to record three of his last four strikeouts.

In the process, he limited the damage to just the Lind homer. He allowed just five hits and two walks while fanning seven over 7 1/3 innings, and he lowered his ERA to 2.85.

Matt Thornton made easy work of both Blue Jays hitters he faced in the eighth, but Addison Reed -- pitching for the third day in a row -- made it a little interesting in the ninth. He walked the leadoff man, who eventually came around to score on a single and a sac fly. But with the tying run at the plate, Reed got Davis to ground into a 6-4-3 to save the Sox's fourth straight win.

Bullet points:

• A.J. Pierzynski provided a little more cushion with his 16th homer of the year.
• The Sox contained Jose Bautista, limiting him to a bloop single and a walk while striking him out twice.

Record: 46-37 | Box score | Play-by-play