Peavy Has Maddux-like Performance, Keeps Hot Streak Going

For all the flak that Jake Peavy has received since, well, the beginning of the season, he has never once lacked in the heart and hustle department, even when he was not at his sharpest on the mound.

Peavy is a competitor in the very nature of the word, and he has given every ounce of energy in his body to the Giants on each occasion in which he stepped on a diamond.

If sweat-drenched hair, arm pumps, and a whole lot of yelling is your cup of tea, Peavy is the man you need to watch.

In the Giants' second to last game at the storied Turner Field and Peavy's birthday, Peavy not only acted with energy; he pitched with it.

In the former home of Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, Peavy paid homage to the great by twirling a "Maddux" of his own.

The veteran faced the minimum through seven innings and only needing 77 pitches to make it there, all while allowing a lone hit to Atlanta Braves catcher and not walking a single batter, leading the Giants to a 4-0 win and their 16th win in 19 games.

Of Peavy's seven innings on the mound, he threw more than eleven during the first and seventh innings and tossed only nine pitches in both the third and the fifth.

Despite the two horrid starts against the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs, Peavy has pitched incredibly well in the month of May. If those two starts are completely forgotten, Peavy has an ERA of 1.85, three quality starts and one decent outing.

Excluding the starts against the Reds and the Cubs is a bit of cherry-picking, but the intention is to show that Peavy is no slouch on the mound despite the slow start to the season.

Including the starts against Cincinnati and Chicago, Peavy will finish the month of May with an ERA of 4.73, not by any means anywhere close to what the Giants want him to be at, but nearly half of ERA in the month of April. With the gem today, Peavy's overall ERA nearly dropped a full run from 7.26 to 6.34.

Atlanta's starter, Wily Peralta, was no slouch at the mound dueling with Peavy and following his lead by retiring the minimum through 5.2 innings.

The game was going along smoothly for Peralta until Peavy decided to step in both at the plate and on the basepaths.

Peavy disrupted that flow by singling with two outs in the top of the sixth inning, and Denard Span, the engine of the San Francisco offense, roped a ball into the right-center field gap.

Peavy was running on the pitch, and after rounding second, he kicked in another gear to circle his way all the way around the basepaths and give the Giants their first run of the game.

With temperatures in the low-90s, the winded warriors, deservedly so, recieved the cold Powerade sponsored towel treatment from trainer Dave Groeschner when he made it back to the dugout.

Following seven quality innings of work, Peavy turned the ball over to the bullpen, where the combined efforts of Josh Osich, Cory Gearrin, and Javier Lopez put the icing on Peavy's birthday cake. George Kontos made an appearance but walked the only batter he faced.

Matt Duffy made a surprise appearance for the Giants just a day after injuring his left hand due to an errant two-seam fastball that ran inside.

The struggling third baseman got a bit of a confidence boost at the plate by driving in Brandon Crawford in a pinch hit appearance.

Duffy probably would have liked a little bit more out of his trip to the plate because the bases were loaded when he hit, but it's right to assume he'll take what he can get.

The Duffman was part of a double switch and played at third base from the seventh inning until the game's conclusion.

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