By: Joe Lami

AP photo: San Francisco Giant Matt Duffy scores ahead of the throw as Oakland A’s catcher Josh Phegley waits for the ball in Friday night’s exhibition game at AT&T Park

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—In the final pre-season game at AT&T Park, Jake Peavy pitched five strong scoreless innings for the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, earning his second win of the spring in a 3-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

It was clearly his best start of the spring, in which he gave up two hits and struck out three. Coming into Friday night’s contest, Peavy has struggled with a 7.43 ERA in the 23 innings he’s pitched over six outings.

Peavy said the change of scenery really helped him out in Friday night’s win, as he was comparing San Francisco to the Cactus League “with such thing air, Arizona is a lot like Colorado with that type of weather and being outside. The ball flies when it gets hit, the infield is like concrete and the ball is getting through. It plays a lot more like baseball when you get out of the Cactus League,” said Peavy.

Peavy’s next start won’t come until Thursday, where he takes the bump in the Giants’ home opener against the Dodgers.  Clearly fired up about the opportunity of starting in the home opener, Peavy exclaimed, “Anytime you get a chance to start your home opener, it’s special and then when you get it versus the Dodgers, you can’t draw it up much better than that as far as the intensity and rivalry. It will be fun to go out there and get thrown right into the fire. It will be as high as you can get, it will be like a post-season game with a lot of intensity and a lot of excitement around the ballpark”.

Two of the Giants runs came in the first inning off the bat of Buster Posey, who hit a double down the left field line to bring in Denard Span and Joe Panik. Posey finished his night two for two, adding another single in the third. Gregor Blanco brought in the Giants’ third run in the seventh inning with a single to left, bringing in Matt Duffy.

Duffy made the play of the game defensively, snagging a short hop at the hot corner, before throwing out A’s catcher Josh Phegley to end the second frame. “The plays Duffy made are [wow], they’re game-changing plays, and that’s what defense will do for you,” added Bruce Bochy.

Santiago Casilla earned his first save of the spring in his ninth appearance, pitching a scoreless ninth inning to close things out.

The Giants and A’s end their battle of the bay series on Saturday in Oakland with Matt Cain pitching against Felix Doubront in the final pre-season game of the year. Expect Cain to be held around five innings, depending on how the game goes of course.