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Peavy wins 18th as Padres continue playoff push

Sep 17, 2007 - 12:19 AM By Tim Powers PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Jake Peavy added to his Cy Young candidacy and the San Diego Padres completed a three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants with a 5-1 victory on Sunday.

The win gave San Diego its eighth straight win over the Giants and helped the Padres hold ground in the chase for a playoff berth.

San Diego (81-67) trails Arizona (84-66) by two games in the National League West and maintained its 1 1/2 game lead over Philadelphia (80-69) in the wild card standings. The Diamondbacks are playing at Los Angeles.

Peavy (18-6) entered the game leading the league in the pitching triple-crown categories and did nothing to dissuade Cy Young Award voters in this one. The All-Star righthander tossed 7 1/3 fantastic innings, allowing one run on just four hits. He fanned 10 batters for his major league best ninth double-digit strikeout effort of the season.

"I think any time you win, you call it a good day," Peavy said. "I felt pretty good. I didn't have a lot of history with those guys (on the Giants). It was a great day, the boys played great baseball."

In becoming the first San Diego pitcher to win 18 games since Kevin Brown did so in 1998 - the year in which the Padres reached the World Series - Peavy improved his league-best statistics to 2.39 ERA and 225 strikeouts.

"It's not for me to decide," Peavy said of his Cy Young qualifications. "To be honest with you, I don't know the numbers of the other guys in the league or where I stand. I'm just going to try to finish strong. I believe I've got two starts left, and then I'll let (the media) decide."

Heath Bell ended an eighth-inning rally by inducing a double-play from the only batter he faced and Cla Meredith closed out the ninth.

Kevin Kouzmanoff paced the San Diego offense with three hits against San Francisco starter Tim Lincecum (7-5), who remained winless since August 16.

"Peavy pitched a great game today and brought his intensity to the mound, which is always nice and a lot fun to play behind," Kouzmanoff said. "We strung some hits together and drove in some runs to get the win."

The Padres got an early lead thanks to a miscue from catcher Guillermo Rodriguez, who threw a pickoff attempt down the right field line that allowed Khalil Greene to reach third base. Greene came home on a groundout by Josh Bard as San Diego took a 1-0 lead that it would not relinquish.

"You know when you're facing Jake that you've got to play your best ball," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "You've got your work cut out, and you have to do all of the things it takes to win a ballgame. We didn't. We made some mistakes."

Lincecum allowed little else until the seventh when Kouzmanoff chased him from the game with a run-scoring double that helped fuel a two-run frame as San Diego but a 4-0 advantage. San Francisco broke through in the eighth with an RBI single from pinch hitter Ray Durham that chased Peavy from the game.

Lincecum finished the day yielding four runs - three earned - on six hits over 6 1/3 innings. The rookie righthander walked five and struck out five.

"You're not out there thinking, 'How am I doing against (Peavy), it's how am I doing against their hitters,'" Lincecum said. "I'm just trying to keep my team in the game. That's pretty much all that's going through my head."

San Francisco lost its fourth straight in falling to 3-12 against San Diego on the season, including 1-8 at Petco Park.