Sep 16, 2007, 23:05 GMT
San Diego, CA - Jake Peavy struck out 10 over 7 1/3 innings for his career-best 18th win of the season, and the Padres continued their domination of the San Francisco Giants with a 5-1 victory, sweeping a three- game series.
Josh Bard homered and drove in two runs for San Diego, which beat the Giants for the eighth straight time and maintained a 1 1/2 game lead on Philadelphia in the National League wild card standings. The Padres also remained two games behind first-place Arizona in the NL West, as the Diamondbacks beat the Dodgers, 6-1, Sunday.
Peavy (18-6), the leader in the NL in wins and the major league leader in ERA at 2.39, allowed four hits and a run while walking one. He's posted double- digit strikeouts nine times this year and has won nine of his last 10 decisions.
Peavy could be on his way to becoming the first Padre to win the Cy Young Award since Mark Davis in 1989.
'Anytime you win, I call it a good day,' Peavy said. 'That's not for me to decide. I don't even know what the other guy's numbers are.'
Tim Lincecum (7-5) gave up six hits and four runs -- three earned -- while walking five and fanning the same number to remain winless in his last five outings.
Kevin Frandsen had two of the five hits for the Giants, and Ray Durham had a pinch-hit RBI single.
'You know when you are going against Jake you've got to play your best ball,' Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. 'We made some mistakes. We made a throwing error early that put them up.'
Randy Winn, playing left field in place of an injured Barry Bonds, misplayed a fly ball, leading to a run, as the Giants dropped their fourth straight. Bonds was out with a strained right big toe, which he hurt in Saturday's game.
Khalil Greene walked with one out in the second and went to third when catcher Guillermo Rodriguez threw the ball into right field on a pick off attempt. Scott Hairston walked, and Greene scored when Bard beat out a potential double-play grounder.
Dave Roberts doubled with one out in the top of the sixth, but was left stranded as Peavy induced a pair of ground balls.
It became 2-0 in the bottom of the inning, as Bard walked with two down and Brady Clark tripled to left when Winn misplayed the ball.
San Diego padded its advantage in the next inning as Kevin Kouzmanoff, who finished with three hits, and Adrian Gonzalez both doubled in runs.
Durham singled in Eugenio Velez in the eighth, ending Peavy's day on the mound.
Bard led off the bottom half with a homer to right field.
Game Notes
The Padres are 12-3 versus the Giants this season. The teams play a three-game series in San Francisco, September 24-26...Kouzmanoff is 14-for-24 with seven RBI over his last eight games...Peavy is 10-6 lifetime against the Giants.
© 2007 The Sports Network
Game Notes.
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