By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–If you win 13 of 14, and almost all of them are close, tense ballgames, then, among other things, that manager dialing up all the lineups, position switches, and pitching changes has had a memorable two weeks.

After Wednesday’s 4-3 thriller over the Padres in 10 innings, that’s Bruce Bochy pushing buttons, and his red-hot Giants winning games.

Bochy’s lineup in the series finale with San Diego was without Hunter Pence, Buster Posey, Denard Span and the injured Angel Pagan. And starting pitcher Jake Peavy took the mound with his manager’s tacit approval, despite his 1-5 record and unsightly 8.21 ERA. But in the end, it all worked out when Brandon Crawford’s game-winning double bounced off the centerfield wall breaking a 3-3 tie with two outs in the 10^th.

Bochy had plenty of guys to thank after the game, from Kelby Tomlinson and George Kontos to Peavy and Crawford. Obviously not his main guys, and excluding first baseman Brandon Belt as well after he was injured running the bases in the eighth, but an effective mix nonetheless, especially with Peavy pitching effectively for the second time in his last three starts.

The Giants improved to 9-0 against the Padres—their victim in six of 13 wins during the current streak—and they’ll miss seeing their divisional foe dearly until the next meeting right after the All-Star break. Right now, the results between the clubs appear closely tied to muscle reflex, simply something done as a matter of course. Padres’ manager Andy Green seemed to see it that way as well.

“The Giants have obviously been good at winning them against us, and we’ve given them a hand or two a few times in doing that. But I think it’s a momentum-based thing. Once you start winning them, it’s, like, ‘OK, we expect to win.”

The Giants saw their lead in the NL West grow to five games with the win, and they became just the second big-league club to register 30 wins thus far joining the Cubs. After Thursday’s off-day the club will resume play in Colorado against the Rockies on Friday night.

Pence, who pitch-hit on Wednesday, and was retired on a fly ball on one pitch, is expected to rejoin the lineup on Friday. Belt got preliminary good news on his nasty-looking spill near second base that had him hobbled. He was diagnosed with a mild ankle sprain, and will be re-evaluated in Colorado.

Matt Cain is scheduled to pitch the opener Friday at 5:40pm against Colorado’s Eddie Butler.

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