Giants win 2-1; Gain a game on Dodgers in NL West

Jake Peavy got the start tonight, and was called upon to be the stopper after the Giants had lost three games in a row. Peavy has pitched great with the Giants, going 5-4 with a 2.29 ERA since his trade. Peavy came into the game riding a three game winning streak, with his last win coming against these same D-backs.

The Giants started the evening going down in order, with two balls stuck hard and on a line, but unfortunatly they were at-him-balls.

After giving up a lead off single to Ender Inciarte, Peavy was able to induce three straight pop ups that didn’t leave the infield to get out of the inning.

Josh Collmenter continued to give up hard hit balls, but again got lucky in the second inning after Pablo Sandoval singled, Hunter Pence hit a rocket down the third base line that the D-backs were able to turn into a double play. Travis Ishikawa then was hit by a pitch, followed by another hard hit line drive, this time by Brandon Crawford, but again it was right at someone, this time the center fielder A.J. Pollock for the third out.

Peavy issued his first walk since August 30th in the second inning, but pitched through it after a couple ground outs and a pop up.

In the top of the fourth inning, Buster Posey hit a solo shot to give the Giants an early 1-0 lead. Posey continued his ownage on Collmenter. Posey is now 10-16 (.625) with three homers and a double in his career vs Collmenter.

In the top of the fifth inning, Brandon Crawford hit a lead off double right on the left field line, but was immediately thrown out on a fielder’s chocie hit by Juan Perez to shortstop Didi Gregorius. Crawford attempted to go to third base, but Gregorius threw him out at third for the first out, breaking an old Cardional Rule: Don’t make the first or last out at third (or home). The Giants failed to score and waisted a lead off double.

Peavy continued to pitch great in the game through five innings. He had only allowed one walk and two hits through that point in the ball game.

Call to the Pen

The Giants went done in order in the sixth inning. The Giants’ offense continued to look deflated in the game. The offense really hasn’t done much since Friday when they scored nine runs against the Dodgers. The offense coming back to life will truly be the key to the Giants winning ball games again in the final two weeks of the season.

In the bottom half of the sixth inning Peavy made his first mistake of the game when he hung a fast ball down the middle in which Chris Owings hit a one out triple. Pollock then followed with a single to left field, and just like that the ball game was tied at 1-1. The Giants were able to turn a double play to get out of the inning, and Peavy began his “Peavy barking” as he left the field. Possibly a way to wake up the Giants’ offense.

And it seemed to work.

The Giants offense showed a tiny bit of life in the top of the seventh after Pence hit a lead off single, followed by an Ishikawa single advancing Pence to third base. Crawford did his job and hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Pence, and the Giants re-took the lead 2-1.

Peavy had a much needed shut down inning in the D-backs’ half of the seventh inning, retiring all three batters in order on 12 pitches.

Peavy’s night came to an end in the eighth inning though after getting two quick outs, but then issued a single to Inciarte and hit Chris Owings. Bruce Bochy went to the bullpen after the hit by pitch brining in Sergio Romo to face A.J. Pollock. Romo threw a hanger to Pollock, but Pollock was still fooled by it swining late and flying out to Pence to end the inning.

Peavy’s line for the night: 7.2 innings, five hits, one run, one walk, four strike outs, and 95 pitches thrown. Peavy’s ERA now with the Giants is an impressive 1.13 ERA.

Santiago Casilla pitched the ninth inning in a save situation. Mark Trumbo started the inning by hitting a hard grounder up the middle that Crawford speared and fired and off balance throw to first for the first out. Casilla followed that at bat by striking out Miguel Montero and then getting Cliff Pennington to fly out to center for the final out of the game, as the Giants hold on and win 2-1.

The Giants are now three games back of the Dodgers after they lost tonight. The Giants also remain 2.5 games ahead of the Pirates after they won their game earlier in the evening.

The rubber match of the series is set for 12:40pm tomorrow as the Ace, Madison Bumgarner (18-9, 2.91 ERA) will face rookie Andrew Chafin (0-0, 0.00 ERA) in his second start of his big league career.