On his 35th birthday, Giants pitcher and Alabama native Jake Peavy had a memorable night in Atlanta at the expense of the Braves.
Peavy allowed just one hit in seven innings of a 4-0 Giants win Tuesday at Turner Field, reducing to footnote status another impressive performance by Braves pitcher Matt Wisler, who’s a little over 11 years younger than his counterpart from Mobile.
“I heard it was his birthday, so maybe God gave him a great birthday present,” said Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte, who was 5-for-13 against Peavy when Inciarte was with Arizona, but went 0-for-3 against him Tuesday. “I didn’t see anything different. He had a good plan and executed it. It’s too bad we weren’t able to execute our plan on our side.”
Each starting pitcher faced the minimum number of batters until Peavy’s two-out, broken-bat single in the sixth assured the unusual streak of efficiency would end. Denard Span, the only Giants hitter who’d faced Wisler before Tuesday, followed Peavy with an RBI triple to right-center to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.
“He’s always going to go out and compete,” Inciarte said of Peavy. “You saw that when he got that base hit and stole that bag and scored. He was willing to win his own game on his own.”
The Giants added three runs in the eighth after Wisler (2-5) gave up a walk and a Gregor Blanco double to start the inning and put two runners in scoring position, at which point was replaced by Hunter Cervenka, the first of three pitching changes that manager Brian Snitker made in a three-batter span.
Blanco has a .349 career average (22-for-64) with nine extra-base hits against his former Braves team.
Cervenka intentionally walked the only batter he faced when the Giants countered with right-handed pinch-hitter Kelby Tomlinson. Matt Duffy — pinch-hitting for Peavy – followed with a soft sacrifice fly off reliever Chris Withrow, Span hit an RBI single through the infield, and a safety-squeeze play pushed the lead to 4-0.
Wisler was charged with four hits and three runs in seven-plus innings, with two walks and two strikeouts.
“He pitched a lot better than what his line showed. Just a shame,” Snitker said. “We couldn’t put runs up for him…. We were in deep trouble, not doing anything offensively, so (the pitching changes were) just trying to cut off everything we could.”
Wisler threw 49 strikes in 79 pitches and left with the score 1-0 and two runners on base, both of whom scored against relievers.
“I’m just frustrated by the fact I gave up the runs in the eighth inning,” Wisler said. “I can’t let that get out of hand like that. Overall I felt good, probably the best I’ve felt all year. I had good slider command, throwing for strikes and balls when I needed to. Overall happy with the outing, just frustrated by the results of the eighth.”
The only Brave to reach base all night was Tyler Flowers, who had a single and a walk. Braves hitters had 28 plate appearances, one over the nine-inning minimum.
Wisler finished 2-3 in May despite a 2.25 ERA in six starts, with three or fewer runs allowed in six or more innings in each, including four starts of at least seven innings.
Peavy (2-5) faced the minimum 21 batters in seven innings and gave up one hit and no walks with three strikeouts, throwing 57 strikes in 77 pitches and improving to 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA in his past five starts against the Braves.
Each starter faced 15 batters through the first five innings, which took a mere 62 minutes. Wisler allowed two base runners in that span but erased each on a double-play grounder.
Peavy, who entered with a 7.26 ERA including a 10.00 ERA in four road starts, didn’t allow a base runner until Flowers’ leadoff single in the fifth. After Nick Markakis lined out to left field, Kelly Johnson grounded into a double play.
For the Giants, Span started the game with a single and Wisler retired the next 10 batters, including a double-play grounder by Hunter Pence to end the first inning. Brandon Belt ended Wisler’s streak with a one-out walk in the fifth, but Wisler got the next batter, Brandon Crawford, on another double-play grounder.
It was the first win for Peavy in four career starts (1-2) at Turner Field. He gave up one run and five hits with eight strikeouts in six innings for no decision in an 8-3 Giants win in his previous start in Atlanta on Aug. 4, 2015.
After giving up at least six earned runs in each of his first three road starts this season, Peavy limited the Diamondbacks to three hits and one run in six innings May 14, his last road start before his boffo birthday performance.
