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Peavy fans nine over 5 2/3 vs. Tigers

Jake Peavy and Ervin Santana are hitting their respective strides at a time when their teams desperately need them to.

Peavy will start Friday's series opener against the Angels for a White Sox team that is trying to make a two-game lead over the Tigers in the American League Central last a couple of more weeks. He has turned in quality starts seven times over his last 10 starts, going 4-4 with a 3.34 ERA, striking out 57 and walking 18 over that stretch.

Peavy is looking to pick up his first career victory over the Angels, posting an 0-2 record and 5.40 ERA in four starts against them. His last start against the Angels came in a 6-4, 10-inning White Sox win on May 11, 2011, which also marked his first start since experiencing a torn lat muscle that forced him to miss nearly an entire year.

In his last start, Peavy gave up two runs on four hits over six innings, striking out six, walking one and throwing 71 of 101 pitches for strikes in a 9-2 win over the Twins on Sunday.

"The boys played well," Peavy said after that triumph. "We came here knowing we had to play well. We did. Minnesota is not having their best year. But they're still a scrappy ballclub."

Since lasting fewer than two innings in two of his first three starts in July, Santana is 4-2 with a 3.30 ERA, delivering quality starts in six of his last eight starts, pitching at least six innings in all of them. The Angels, who trail the A's and the Orioles by 4 1/2 games in the AL Wild Card race, send Santana to the mound on Friday.

The Angels used their off-day on Monday to skip Santana's spot in the rotation. He took a comebacker to his right wrist in his last start against the A's on Sept. 12. Santana, who will be pitching on eight days' rest on Friday, has a 3.80 ERA in 25 career starts made on at least six days' rest.

He's thrown two bullpens since his last start and is confident he won't have trouble finding a rhythm because of the extra rest.

"Whether it's 30 days, 40 days, it doesn't matter how many days I've been without pitching," Santana said. "I feel more energized and have more desire to win now than ever because time's running out and we need to put more pressure on them. I love competition."

White Sox: Konerko out with back injury, Johnson at DH
• A minor back injury kept Paul Konerko out of the White Sox lineup on Thursday night. He has played in 132 of the team's 149 games, boasting a team-best .305 batting average with 23 home runs and 69 RBIs. Konerko has homered just twice in his last 95 at-bats, batting .237 in his last 42 games.

"I'm going to just get my body in order for tomorrow night or later on tonight," Konerko said. "I should be good to go from here on out. That's basically it. Nothing's wrong or anything like that. Everybody's dragging."

Dan Johnson made his third start since getting called up from Triple-A Charlotte on Sept. 1, going 0-for-3 and scoring a run in a 4-3 loss to the Royals on Thursday. He has five hits in 14 at-bats for the White Sox this season.

• Konerko, Adam Dunn and Gordon Beckham were among the White Sox players that got rid of their mustaches after a five-game winning streak came to an end after a 3-0 loss to the Royals on Wednesday.

"My wife's happy that it's gone," Konerko said. "We've been trying to get rid of them since last Friday, but we kept winning games. So after [Wednesday]'s game, we finally said, 'Enough's enough.'"

Angels: GM Dipoto believes Trout is AL's MVP
• Count Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto as one who thinks rookie outfielder Mike Trout should be named American League MVP. While impressed with Miguel Cabrera, who has a chance to become the first player to win the Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski 45 years ago, Dipoto believes Trout -- who boasted a Majors-best 10.2 WAR entering Thursday -- is deserving of the MVP award.

"If there is a definition of the Most Valuable Player, I think Mike Trout's picture would be next to it this year," Dipoto said. "Miguel Cabrera is having a season for the ages, as well -- something we haven't seen, quite frankly, in 40 years. I see the difference [Trout] makes on the field, what he does on the bases, what he does defensively, the different elements he brings to the game, which quite frankly, can't be mentioned in a stat line."

• The Angels were 82-67 after 149 games in 2011 and, before Thursday's night's 3-1 loss to the Rangers, were 81-68 through 149 contests this year. Despite the similar record, the Angels' offense has improved significantly since last season. The club's .274 team batting average is 21 points higher than it was through 149 games a year ago and the Angels scored 44 more runs and hit 22 more homers than they did at this time last September.

Worth noting
• White Sox left-hander Matt Thornton gave up a walk-off single to Eric Hosmer in a 4-3 loss to the Royals on Thursday night, snapping a 13 2/3-inning scoreless streak by White Sox relievers.

• After posting a 6.51 ERA over a 15-game stretch last month, Angels hurlers have gone 16-8 with a 2.63 ERA in 24 games.

• Entering Thursday, Torii Hunter (.347) and Erick Aybar (.346) owned the second-best and third-best batting averages in the AL since the All-Star break.

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