Jake Peavy’s Third Spring Start: Encouraging.

The box score rarely tells the full story. Just as easy as a bloop single becomes a line drive, Jake Peavy’s 4.0 IP/6 H/3 ER/1 BB/2 SO day becomes something not all that great.

Ask Jake or Ozzie, they  may beg to differ.

"I felt OK. Better than I expected. Made good progress today. I’m excited about the direction I went in. Obviously worked on some things, found some flaws out there middle part of the game, worked on some things, stayed stubborn. Got good work in. It was a fun day. Climbed."

"I threw some early breaking balls that were pretty good, I got some swings and misses…After the home run we stayed stubborn and made the best pitches that we’ve made. My arm bounced back and I felt pretty good today. It was a good step in the right direction, where we can keep climbing.” – Jake Peavy after his outing Monday"

"I think today he was more aggressive than he was early [in spring training]…He’s done everything he had to do to be out on the mound. I’m very happy with where he is right now. – Manager Ozzie Guillen on Peavy"

Guillen went on to say that of all his starting pitchers, he’s most impressed by Peavy and the progress he’s made, even calling him “the best” of his starters to this point. What that means isn’t exactly clear. Guillen still isn’t sure if Peavy will be able to break camp in the rotation, but he’s certainly optimistic.

Peavy threw 67 pitches over his four innings of work Monday, 47 of the pitches were strikes. I counted at least six swings and misses, which is a good sign this early. He made a couple San Diego batters look silly with his off-speed stuff. He just needs to work up the stamina in his arm and really feel comfortable and in command of his fastball.

We’ll see how Peavy feels in the coming days, likely a dead-arm phase for the next two or three days just as he dealt with in between this start and his last, but Sox fans should start to feel a little more confident that their No. 5 starter for the majority of the season will be a former Cy Young winner.