By Ben Leonard
Follow @ben___leonard//

AP photo: SF Giants starter Jake Peavy throwing in spring training game against the Texas Ranger 3-7-16
TEMPE, Ariz. –The Arizona desert is where pitchers come to die. The arid climate and thin air gives balls a rocket-propelled thrust out of ballparks across the Cactus League. That’s especially true at the Angels’ Tempe Diablo Stadium, a bandbox practically carved out of a cragged rock formation that watches over the short left field fence.

Giants’ starter Jake Peavy has survived many a hellish spring on the mound, and has gotten even more scorched by the desert than most other pitchers.. “There’s nothing fun about pitching in Arizona,” Peavy said Saturday. “I don’t know what my career ERA is, but I know it’s not good.” For those of you at home, his career Spring Training ERA is 5.92, but Peavy’s not counting.

After all of the trials and tribulations in springs past, that’s why Peavy thought Saturday was an “improvement,” an outing in which he gave up three runs on five hits in four innings, part of a 9-5 loss to the Angels. He fell victim to bloop hit after bloop hit before he hung one slider to Albert Pujols, who made him pay in the first inning with a two-run homer, scoring Yunel Escobar.

When asked what the difference was after the first two innings, when he gave up all of the three runs, Peavy was short: “One pitch to Pujols.” He said he didn’t finish his slider after getting Pujols in a 1-2 hole, which helped Pujols deposit a low, looping line drive home run just over the fence in left. Leading up to that, Escobar had reached on a “jam shot” hit even when Peavy “executed” his pitch.

Although he did give up some hard contact, Peavy’s line was distorted by several cheap hits. One, a broken bat double, put Carlos Perez in position to drive in Simmons with a sacrifice fly in the third, the only other blemish on Peavy’s ledger. In the desert, that’s a fairly good outing. Overall, despite giving up a fair amount of damage, Peavy felt encouraged about his outing and his stuff.

“It was a good day,” Peavy said. “It was a good progression — I got to use a little bit of everything and didn’t go terribly hard. I just was able to throw my pitches against a good major league lineup. It was a fun day of trying to get better.”

Peavy backed off a little bit from his last outing, a solid effort (3.0 IP, 2 ER) against the Texas Rangers on Monday. He threw about 90%, and used all of his pitches. When he missed, he was close. For Peavy,

For Peavy, the results in spring are far less important than finding his comfort zone.”I always worry about pitch execution and how comfortable I am on the mound making adjustments,” Peavy said Saturday. “I was able to do that and make some good pitches to Pujols his next time up. I felt growth and progress, and I’m always pleased when I feel like I’m moving forward.”

But the fiery Peavy would never go out completely satsfied after a three-run outing — he was very frustrated after walking Perez in the fourth with one out. “That’s the stuff where you lose your concentration, and you’ve got to pull it together.”