Wins are great, but please call the fashion police!

We were wrong. They uniforms from Saturday weren’t the worst we’d ever seen; the Giants and Rays saved those for Sunday (too close to Dodger Blue for our taste). Fortunately the game was slightly more attractive as San Francisco blew open a tight ballgame with a four-run eighth, nothing a 5-1 victory and sweeping the three-game  set at Tampa Bay.

Conor Gillaspie gives a rip after Duffy threw a shoe. (Getty Images)

With the win, the Giants matched their longest winning streak of the season at eight games. It’s also their 27^th win over their last 35 games (the other eight-game streak started this unlikely run), a feat not accomplished since, well, never. That’s a San Francisco record, baby! We’ll owe Dick Vitale royalties on that, won’t we?

And, in true Giants fashion, someone got hurt. Dammit!

Matt Duffy appeared in his 188^th consecutive game, and if you knew that was the active ML benchmark you’ve gotta get a life. So of course it was Duffy who got dinged, leaving the game in the seventh inning with a sore left Achilles. According to Manager Bruce Bochy it’s nothing new. The same injury nagged Duffy in spring training and was aggravated while running the bases Sunday.

The injury was aggravated. Not Duffy. Or Bochy. Or us. Well yeah, we find all of the injuries pretty aggravating, but still….. His status is day-to-day.

Back to the matter at hand. The NL West frontrunners hold a 6 ½-game lead over Los Angeles with a robust 44-26 record; not bad for a team that was sub-.500 in early May. The Dodgers kept pace by walking off (literally) Milwaukee on Sunday. The rest of the division is below sea level and taking on water.

However it ended, the game did start out looking as though it would be every bit as unpleasant as the uniforms.

Peavy threw six strong. Shh, you'll jinx it. (Getty Images)

Jake Peavy, whose start was pushed back a day due to a stiff neck, was simply a stiff in the first inning. He was a disaster, and the Rays had to be kicking themselves after netting just one run in a first inning reminiscent of the keystone cops. 

Peavy gave up singles to the first two men he faced then threw away a pick-off attempt for the first of three Giants errors on the day. The errant toss plated a run and put a runner at second.

After a ground-out, Peavy hit a man to put runners at the corners. He looked as though he’d gotten out of the jam when Steve Pearce loft a foul off of first but Brandon Belt dropped it. Did you get that? Brandon Belt dropped it. Good teams make you pay for that mistake.

Pearce used his new life to register another pop-up, this one caught by Joe Panik in fair territory to silence the calliope. The Rays are not a good team.

And then a funny thing hgappened. The cutter started cutting, the Rays started swinging at it when they shouldn’t have (Peavy’s game), and the contest rolled dead even into the late innings before the Giants took command. Oh, the hosts did have some chances but they went 0-for-8 with RISP over the first three innings. Then crickets.

If you can believe it, Peavy pitched six solid innings (8K, 1BB, 4H) and sat down 12 of the last 13 batters he faced. We’d assumed the worst and thought “Finding Dory “ was a pretty good option early on, but once Peavy found his groove (he shoulda called Stella earlier) the Rays looked like what they were; a struggling team ending a horrid home stand that just wants to get away.

Belt’s solo homer (his team-high 10^th) in the fourth of Jake Odorizzi knotted the score at 1-1 and the game remained deadlocked until the eighth. It was a bullpen game and the Giants found one every bit as challenged as their own. Derek Law (2-1) worked a scoreless seventh, setting up the big kaboom in the eighth.

Gregor Blanco greeted reliever Xavier Cedeno  with a grounder through the right side and Denard Span sacrificed him to second with the Giants playing for one run in a tight game. Ah, fools! Panik broke the tie with a line drive single, and the Giants were just getting started.

Time out. Panik was just 2 for 14 in the series but both hits broke late-inning ties. His three-run, ninth-inning homer was the big blow on Saturday. Quality, not quantity.

Belt walked, and Tyler Sturdevant came on for Cedeno.  That worked out really well, for the visitors. Sturdevant probably wished he’d stayed in bed.  Buster Posey ripped a single to score Panik, then Conor Gillaspie (in for Duffy) doubled to chase home a pair and the Giants had their final.

Belt and Duffy each had two hits to lead a nine-hit attack. Everyone else got a mention earlier with the exception of Angel Pagan, and we like him so we’ll give props for his fifth-inning single.

So it’s on to Pittsburgh, where the Pirates are a disappointing 33-36 and where Jack Clark is still hoping for an at-bat or two (that’s for us old-timers). Madison Bumgarner (8-2, 1.91 ERA) faces Jeff Locke (5-5, 5.92) in the opener of a four-gamer.

San Francisco hasn't lost a MadBum start since late April, a string of 10 appearances. He’s 7-0 with a 1.27 ERA, 78 strikeouts during that non-Denard span.

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