By Morris Phillips
SAN FRANCISCO–Verbal and uncommonly animated, you could hear Jake Peavy after he got ahead of reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson, the second batter of Monday’s game, one ball, two strikes.
Of Peavy’s next four pitches to Donaldson, only the third could be considered effective, a slower than slow breaking pitch that had the slugger hopping across the plate to control his bat just enough to foul off the nasty offering. The other three pitches? Hardly impactful; first Peavy missed inside, then outside, and after Donaldson stayed alive by barely getting his bat on what would have been a called strike three, another ball outside, like the first two, not close enough to tempt the keen-eyed MVP.
Donaldson drew a walk, and Peavy’s signature grunt—for this batter, more of a groan—grew more intense on each pitch. But on Monday, as it has more often than not thus far this season—intensity didn’t equal a win.
Peavy would go on to throw 27 pitches in a laborious first inning, allowing just one run, despite giving up two hits, two walks and uncorking a wild pitch. But fearless damage control wouldn’t be enough against the favorites in the AL East, as Peavy would go on to allow three runs in a 3-1 loss in which the Giants’ offense was again missing in action, and provided little support for their starting pitcher.
“We just ran into a well-pitched game,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We saw a great arm tonight. He’s been throwing the ball well and he just shut us down but they battled hard. It’s a good sign for Jake, to battle and compete the way he did, to hold them to three there.”
No matter the degree of scuffling, as Bochy described, Peavy was ultimately effective. He went five innings, kept his team in the ballgame, and never gave in. But he couldn’t locate his pitches, walked five guys, creating constant stress, and needed 112 pitches to record 15 outs.
That 112th pitch induced Russell Martin to pop out with the bases loaded, and the game in the balance. Talk about trust between manager and player.
“I just appreciate him showing that confidence in me to make that pitch,” Peavy said.
Offensively, the Giants were stymied again, this the third straight day they saw an upcoming starter displaying his best stuff and being consistent with it. Aaron Sanchez allowed the Giants just three hits and a run, despite having a lot of screwy stuff happen around him.
Sanchez went seven innings and lowered his ERA on the road in four starts thus far to 0.96.
Both teams exited with identical 17-17 records, and despite being near consensus picks to win their divisions, both the Blue Jays and Giants have a lot to work to do. The Giants came in having scored just 2 runs in 22 innings, and did little to reverse that trend. The Jays have their big bats hitting 2 through 6 with Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Troy Tulowitzki, but their entire lineup can’t seem to get the batting averages where they need to be, while reducing the strike outs.
Encarnacion homered off Peavy in third, with Bautista on with a walk, giving the Jays all the offense they would need. Peavy’s only consolation there? He struck out Encarnacion in the fifth, the equivalent of winning the battle, losing the war.
The Giants turn to Matt Cain on Tuesday, in a matchup with the revived J.A. Happ at 7:15pm.
NOTES: With Encarnacion’s two-run shot in the third, he and Bautista share the lead in home runs in interleague games since 2010 with 34. Houston’s Colby Rasmus is next with 33…. Angel Pagan inches closer to a return from that tweak in his knee suffered rounding the bases in New York two Sundays ago. The Giants didn’t disclose a timetable, but sometime this week appears likely. Pagan was available to pinch hit Monday, but would not have stayed in the game to run the bases. George Kontos, out since April 18, is doing a rehab stint with Triple A Sacramento, and pitched a scoreless inning on Sunday. Albert Suarez followed Peavy Monday, pitching two innings in relief as the follow-up to his major league debut on Saturday.
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