Peavy says loss is 'borderline' embarrassing'

By: BRIAN HIRO - Staff Writer | Saturday, September 9, 2006 12:02 AM PDT ∞

SAN FRANCISCO ---- On a crisp, cool Friday night that called to mind October baseball, the Padres and San Francisco Giants engaged in a pitching duel befitting the postseason stage.

Specifically, the Padres' Jake Peavy and the Giants' Matt Cain reminded an AT&T Park crowd of 38,988 why they are two of the best young arms in the National League and should lock horns for years to come.

Peavy and the Padres can only hope that Cain isn't always this good.

The 21-year-old right-hander, blossoming into a bona-fide ace during his first full season, allowed only one hit in seven scoreless innings as he and the Giants extended their recent mastery of the Padres with a 4-0 victory to open the weekend series.

"He's one of the better young pitchers in the game," Padres manager Bruce Bochy said of Cain. "He's got overpowering stuff."

Cain bested Peavy for the third time in three meetings since July 21, and the Giants defeated the Padres for the 10 time in 11 tries dating back to the second game of a July 1 doubleheader at Petco Park. Their five-game winning streak snapped, the Padres watched their wild-card lead over San Francisco shrink to 2 1/2 games (1 1/2 over Philadelphia) while they fell 1 1/2 games behind first-place Los Angeles in the National League West.

"That's borderline embarrassing the way we got beat," Peavy said. "We were down 2-0 the majority of the night, and it felt like we were down 5-0. I'm not sure why that was. We just didn't have the enthusiasm and drive we had the last five days."

The Giants' first-round pick out of high school in 2002, Cain was virtually untouchable Friday. Though he walked three batters in the early innings, he didn't surrender his first hit until Brian Giles lined his 96th pitch for a single to right-center field with one out in the sixth. Cain recovered to mow down the next five hitters, leaving after throwing 119 pitches in seven innings.

Peavy estimated that about 100 of them were four-seam fastballs, most of which were clocked in the mid-90s.

"To throw basically one pitch to a big-league lineup, you have to have good stuff that do that," Peavy said. "That's impressive."

When he faced the Padres in San Diego on Aug. 17, Cain gave up only one hit with eight strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. That began his current run of domination in which he has yielded one earned run in 34 innings over five starts for a microscopic 0.26 ERA.

"He will throw a no-hitter, that guy. Maybe more than one," Giants manager Felipe Alou said. "He's destined to be a great pitcher, as long as the kid is healthy."

Finding himself on the wrong end of a stellar pitching effort was nothing new for Peavy, whose trying season has practically been defined by it.

Friday marked the 10th time this year that the Padres failed to score a run while Peavy was in the game. By giving up three earned runs in 6 2/3 innings, Peavy (8-14) turned in his 11th quality start without a victory to show for it.

"I get Cy Young just about every time out," bemoaned Peavy, who said he wasn't affected by the bruised toe on his left foot. "It's no fun. It's hard not to get frustrated when you're constantly on the short end of the stick."

Peavy was reached for leadoff hits in four innings: Randy Winn's single in the first, Moises Alou's triple in the second, Ray Durham's double in the fourth, and Pedro Feliz's double in the seventh. Winn, Durham and Feliz came around to score, and Alou added a homer off reliever Rudy Seanez in the eighth.

The Padres advanced only runner into scoring position, on a pair of walks in the fourth, and finished with two hits, with Adrian Gonzalez adding a single in the ninth.

"We have to find a way to play better," Peavy said. "It's not going to get any easier tomorrow with (Giants pitcher) Jason Schmidt."

Contact staff writer Brian Hiro at b_hiro@hotmail.com.

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