Jake Peavy can keep his perfect home record intact when he starts for the Chicago White Sox Saturday evening against the Miami Marlins in the middle contest of a three-game series.
The right-hander, who is 2-0 in three starts this season at U.S. Cellular Field, is coming off a 6-2 loss against the Angels on Sunday. That snapped a four-game winning streak over a five-start span.
Peavy has notched at least six strikeouts in each of his last 10 starts, going back to Sept. 27, 2012 against Tampa Bay. He's 4-4 with a 3.16 ERA in his career when facing the Marlins.
Ricky Nolasco struggled immensely last year facing American League teams. The Marlins right-hander, who toes the rubber tonight, was 0-3 with an 8.80 ERA in three interleague starts last season. He owns a 5-6 mark and a 5.45 ERA in 13 career road starts in interleague play.
Most recently, Nolasco broke a three-start losing streak with a 2-1 win against Arizona on Sunday. He had 11 strikeouts over eight innings.
Nolasco's only other career start against the White Sox came May 21, 2010 in Chicago as he suffered an 8-0 loss. He allowed eight runs on 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings.
On Friday, Jeff Keppinger's bases-loaded single plated Tyler Greene with the winning run in the 11th inning to lift the White Sox to a 4-3 victory.
John Danks received a standing ovation following his pitching performance of six-plus innings. The left-hander, who made his first start in more than a year, allowed four hits and three runs and fanned five. Danks' 2012 season ended with arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder.
Nate Jones (1-4) recorded the final two outs of the top of the 11th inning, and the White Sox, who were seemingly robbed of the win a frame earlier, loaded the bases against Ryan Webb (1-2).
Paul Konerko singled with one out and was lifted for Greene in a pinch-running situation. Dayan Viciedo singled to right off the glove of a diving second baseman Derek Dietrich. With runners at the corners, the Marlins elected to intentionally walk Conor Gillaspie. Keppinger then hit a sharp grounder beyond a diving Placido Polanco into left field to cap the opener of this three-game set.
Alex Rios singled in the sixth inning to extend his career-high hitting streak to 18 games for the White Sox, who have won three of their last four games.
Konerko, who is hitting just .236 this season, singled to left to drive in Rios in the sixth. It was one of three hits for the first baseman.
"It's becoming more consistent," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said of Konerko's hitting. "You can see the light at the end of the tunnel of at-bats, time after time. He's doing the right thing and not trying to do too much, just hitting."
Dietrich belted a two-run homer in the fourth inning, but the Marlins lost for the 10th time in their last 12 games.
"We continue to get our opportunities to score and we just can't score," Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. "That's just where we're at. We've been watching this all year. It's frustrating. We continue to get guys in situations and we're just not able to drive a runner in."
The White Sox defeated the Marlins in two of three games when they last met in 2010.
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