While it may have been Matt Duffy's bobblehead night, Jake Peavy and his new contact lenses stole the show, propelling the Giants to a 7-2 win over the Marlins' ace Jose Fernandez, their second straight after losing five in a row.
For the first time in a long time, there was a sense of calm as Peavy toed the slab. After struggling in his first three starts on the year, Peavy was magnificent on the mound, establishing control of his pitches early on in the game and holding the Miami offense to only two runs. He kept his pitches down in the strike zone and rarely elevated any of his pitches above the knees, which proved to be the biggest key in containing a potent Marlins lineup. The right-hander's breaking pitches were working with him, not against him, as he got great movement off of cutter, curveball, and two-seam fastball to rack up more than a couple of swings and misses.
This control and break on his pitches allowed Peavy neutralized the core of the Marlins' offense, striking out mighty slugger Giancarlo Stanton three times and holding Dee Gordon hitless with a couple of soft popups that barely registered a sound off of the bat.
On the opposite side of the ball, the bats stayed awake and pinned four runs on Fernandez. When facing the ace, the San Francisco offense didn't try to do too much at the plate and took what they were given, which is what they needed to do to manufacture runs off of the electrifying right-hander.
The first inning set the tone for things to come for the offense. In the bottom of the first, the Giants also had more than a couple great at-bats. Joe Panik, Matt Duffy, and Buster Posey, all of whom had been struggling coming into the game, singled off Fernandez in the first with excellent swings. Panik took a two-seam fastball that was running away from him to left, and Duffy followed it up by waiting back on a slider and lining it up the middle. Posey won a nine-pitch battle, going from 0-2 to 3-2 before inside-outing a fastball to right to drive in Panik. Belt had a nice approach at the plate as well, going with a changeup with outward movement to left to drive in Duffy. When the first inning was all said and done, the Giants led 2-0.
Marcel Ozuna got the Marlins on the scoreboard by muscling a triple on a two-seam fastball down in the zone into Triples Alley, cutting the Miami deficit to one run.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth, Jake Peavy wasn't shy about helping out his cause, driving in Brandon Belt and Hunter Pence to extend the Giants' lead to 4-1. Peavy credited his new contact lenses to his success at the plate. (Fun fact: Giants pitchers are 9 for 42 with seven RBIs this season. #ScrewTheDH)
Derek Dietrich cut the lead to two in the top of the sixth by driving in Christian Yelich with a double, but the Giants were quick about getting that run right back and then some, as in the bottom of the seventh, Kelby Tomlinson drove in Gregor Blanco with a single, then Joe Panik drove him in with a single of his own. Angel Pagan added an RBI of his own off the bench, driving in Blanco to give us the final score of 7-2.
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