White Sox Peavy roughed up in spring debut

The two pitchers faced off Sunday, their first starts of spring training.

Richard pitched two scoreless innings, leading the Padres to a 4-0 win over the White Sox. Peavy was hit hard, giving up three runs and five hits.

Peavy yielded RBI doubles to Chase Headley, Cameron Maybin and Nick Hundley. Despite the result, Peavy was happy with his performance. He focused on fastball command, throwing just two sliders as a strikeout pitch.

More importantly, Peavy no longer has any concerns about injuries, a recurring issue in recent springs.

"It's not (even) in the back of my head," Peavy said of his health. "You have no idea what the future holds — I may go out tomorrow and my elbow could blow up, that's the risk we all take. But I think the numbers velocity-wise today proves that to a lot of guys around camp. I had a little bit more than I had at any point all of last year. That's a nice sign for me and something to build on and you have to keep getting stronger."

Peavy was surprised that the Padres were so aggressive, with nine of his 15 batters faced swinging at a first-pitch fastball. Being aggressive within the zone has become a point of emphasis with the Padres dating to last season, especially against top-flight pitchers.

"You can't get behind on these pitchers, and you saw some willingness to go after the early fastball in the second half last year and our hitting coaches continue to preach that philosophy," Padres manager Bud Black said. "I think that's a good thing."

In terms of the 2009 trade, Black thinks it came out relatively even. Richard has been healthy and consistent in recent years, and Peavy, the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner, has had injury issues while being more dynamic when healthy.