"Jake Peavy has pitched at least six innings in his last six starts. His best outing was Aug. 7 in Minnesota when he worked eight scoreless innings.

But he's 1-3 in the span and usually runs into trouble after four innings.

Peavy's novel surgery to reattach a torn muscle was 13 months ago, and manager Ozzie Guillen said he has kept that in mind.

''It's tough,'' Guillen said, ''because Peavy throws five or six innings. .?.?. Then the next outing he'll go 110 or 115 [pitches] dealing. We don't know exactly what he's going to get.

''That's something you can't control. You are going to go day by day. The injury he had, it's been just about a year, but I still have it in the back of my head. Maybe he doesn't, but it's in my head. This kid came back from a very tough injury, and this year he's been pitching more than in the past because he had an ankle injury and arm injury [before coming to the Sox in 2009 from the San Diego Padres]. Maybe that's why. I'm just assuming. Hopefully he can finish up this year in the right way and see how he is next year.''

Peavy said he felt fine Friday against the Texas Rangers but couldn't make effective pitches when needed. "