When Jake Peavy arrived on the South Side at the trade deadline, his comments, about starting his first game with the squad in late August coming of his injury, were thus:

“I don’t see why it couldn’t be accomplished,” said Peavy. “I’ve done everything pain-free. I expect to be on the mound, throw a couple of bullpen sessions and then I assume I’m going to start [pitching].”

But after a rough outing on Tuesday night down in Triple A, Peavy won’t be starting any games for the Sox this month, as he’s doing at least two more rehab starts for the Knights. The first one will be Sunday. The second one will be Aug. 28. Let’s play it cautious and say he’ll have one more start down in Triple A on Sept 2. (He can’t do much more than that; the Knights’ regular season ends on Sept. 7.)

So let’s take Sept. 7, an afternoon game against the Red Sox in Boston, as the first day Peavy will be back. (This assumes if the Sox have a Buehrle or a Danks scheduled to go on that day, they’ll slide the rotation back a day to accommodate.)

If my counting is correct, including that Boston game, Sox fans can expect Peavy to pitch in five games this season, with a possible sixth if he comes up to the South Side after his August rehab stints. All and all, that’s actually not so bad. If the Sox keep within 2-3 games of Detroit heading into the last month, 5-6 games of Peavy on the mound is far better than Freddy Garcia, or whoever they’d toss out in the revolving door of the fifth spot.

Now, this by no means puts them over the top. But it’s a great added boost heading into playoff crunch time.