"On the same night Paul McCartney captivated a crowd at Wrigley Field, eight miles away on the South Side another performer aging quickly in front of our eyes tried recapturing lost glory at the Cell.

White Sox starting pitcher Jake Peavy did Monday night what Peavy now does. He gave everything he had without giving in. He showed more resolve than command. He slowly strutted on and off the mound like the days when he used to be unhittable.

He labored. And he lost, again.

It was a hard day's night for ol' man Peavy.

"It's the best he's thrown the ball I think since Washington (June 25)," Ozzie Guillen said.

But it wasn't good enough. In a showdown of former Cy Young Award winners, Peavy pitched seven solid innings in a 3-2 defeat to CC Sabathia and the Yankees in front of 24,142 fans. He threw a season-high 115 pitches, settling down after a shaky first to give up eight hits and three earned runs.

"I tried to pace myself and felt a little bit better going deeper in the ballgame," Peavy said. "That's a great sign for me. I'm excited."

The outing will go down as a quality start for Peavy, but he will be the first to tell you those have been too few and far between for everybody. We expected more from Peavy by the beginning of August, partly because the competitor in him kept telling us he was fine when he couldn't have been. And we all bought it.

The more we listened to the Sox say everything was all right, I wondered if Peavy really was listening to his body.

In reality, any pitcher a little more than a year removed from having breakthrough surgery to reattach the latissimus dorsi muscle in his throwing shoulder — Jake Peavy surgery — shouldn't be this important in a pennant race. He probably shouldn't have been allowed to volunteer for a four-inning stint in the bullpen June 25 — the last time Peavy recorded a victory. And he never should be considered the ace of the pitching staff."