Peavy nearly perfect; and we have a headache

Jake Peavy hadn’t won a game in seven starts. During that span he’d been, to put it mildly, awful. His outings had seen more runs than a dysentery ward. Now this.

Tuesday night in Atlanta, Peavy was good. We checked the DVR for glitches, made sure our medications were up to snuff and cleared out the liquor cabinet. We even considered checks for vertigo, skirvy and emissions of radon gas and couldn’t come up with any other explanation for having witnessed a seven-inning, one-hit performance in a 4-0 win at Atlanta.

We're not convinced this wasn't a hallucination so just enjoy the pretty picture. (AP Photo)

At the one-third pole, the NL West derby has started to take shape. A 16-of-19 run has lifted the Giants to 33-21 and a 4 ½-game lead over Los Angeles in the NL West Derby. The Hated Dodgers kept pace Tuesday by snapping Jake Arietta’s win streak by beating the Cubs at Chicago 5-0. The rest of the division is falling by the wayside with Colorado, Arizona and San Diego respectively three, eight and 13 games under .500.

Peavy picked the occasion of his 35th birthday for what was likely his most impressive start since American Legion ball. He surrendered just one hit and he faced the minimum over seven scoreless innings, He struck out three, didn’t walk a batter, and his only baserunner was erased on a double play. Not bad for a guy whose recent escapades had been so radioactive that his stat sheet had a half-life.

Thanks to a generous strike zone and aggressive hitters on both sides, Peavy wasn’t the only pitcher having a good night. Atlanta starter Matt Wisler surrendered four hits in seven-plus innings, and we’re sure his mother was proud. Wisler’s mother, get it? Moving on.

Peavy also helped his own cause with a base hit that set up the night’s hitting hero. With two out in the sixth, Peavy fisted a broken-bat single up the middle. With Peavy on the move, Denard Span followed with a liner that split the defenders in right center for an RBI triple and 1-0 lead.

Through seven the game moved at a breakneck pace and seemed destined to be finished in time for Final Jeopardy, then the bullpens got involved.

Wisler exited after surrendering a four-pitch walk to Brandon Crawford and a Gregor Blanco double to start the eighth. Then it started to get silly, so take notes because we didn’t have the time or construction paper to make charts and graphs.

Hunter Cervenka came on to replace Wisler, intentionally walking Kelby Tomlinson, who was pinch hitting for Conor Gillaspie. Manager Bruce Bochy went for the kill, sending the resting Matt Duffy to face Cervenka in Peavy’s place. Except Cervenka didn’t stick around, giving way to Chris Withrow, who gave up a sac fly to Duffy to make it a 2-0 lead.

Peavy fell down and went boom but Posey made the play, so whatever. (AP Photo)

With us so far? Withrow was yanked for Eric O’Flaherty, and Span bounced a single over the drawn-in infield to chase home Blanco. Joe Panik followed with push bunt originally ruled an infield single. It was overturned by replay and logged as a sacrifice and RBI but nobody outside off fantasy leaguers gave a turkey because Tomlinson scored to make it 4-nil

The Giants played the match-up game as well. George Kontos, Josh Osich and Corey Gearrin all saw duty in getting San Francisco through the eighth. Gearrin also picked up an out in the ninth before letting Javy Lopez get the final two batters.

Span is hitting nearly .450 over the past week and had three of the Giants’ five hits. Peavy and Blanco provided the others.

With fifth-starter Matt Cain on the DL, Albert Suarez (1-1, 2.25 ERA) will make his first Major League start Wednesday. Suarez took over when Cain suffered an injured hamstring at Colorado last Friday, giving up three runs over five innings. Atlanta goes with Williams Perez (2-1, 3.72) , who has spent part of 2016 in AAA but has allowed two earned runs or less in three of four starts since returning.

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