ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

Dose of Venom: Peavy outduels Collmenter as Giants even series with Diamondbacks

Sep 17, 2014, 5:22 AM | Updated: 5:23 am

PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Josh Collmenter threw well enough on Tuesday to be deserving of a new career-high Major League win total.

But lately, pitchers who have squared off against Jake Peavy have rarely gotten what they deserve.

Acquired in a trade from the Boston Red Sox on July 26, Peavy yielded just one run on five hits with four strikeouts in 7.2 innings as the San Francisco Giants beat the D-backs 2-1 in front of 26,339 fans at Chase Field, evening the series at one game apiece.

Peavy (7-13), who has a career 3.55 ERA in 13 Major League seasons, is 6-4 with a 2.16 ERA since the Giants traded for him in order to bolster their hopes of winning the National League West division.

“Jake threw well for them, kept us off balance again and never really gave us momentum to get anything going,” Collmenter said. “It’s tough losing 2-1 games, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Collmenter (10-8), who suffered his first loss since Aug. 17, put together his fifth-straight quality start, giving up two earned runs, seven hits and no walks in eight innings of work.

But the Giants got to Collmenter in the top of the fourth inning when Buster Posey hit a home run — his 21st of the season — that landed just out of the grasp of left fielder Ender Inciarte to give San Francisco a 1-0 lead.

“It was a changeup down and in. Not many guys can hit that ball,” said D-backs manager Kirk Gibson of Posey’s homer. “He had big numbers against Colly coming in. Buster’s one of the better hitters in the game.”

Collmenter said he has no regrets.

“If he hits that out, I’ll give him credit. It was a good pitch,” he said.

The D-backs responded in the bottom of the sixth with a triple by Chris Owings and an RBI single by A.J. Pollock to tie the game. But Peavy ended the threat by forcing Mark Trumbo to ground into a double play, and the Giants promptly retook the lead with back-to-back singles by Hunter Pence and Travis Ishikawa, followed by a sacrifice fly by Brandon Crawford in the top of the seventh.

It was enough to deny Collmenter his 11th win of the season, which would have been a new personal best. The right-hander went 10-10 in his first Major League season when he helped lead the D-backs to the 2011 NL West championship.

Gibson said the decision not to take Collmenter out of the game following his rocky seventh inning was easy.

“Tonight, I just couldn’t do it. I just left him in there and said, ‘This is your game,'” he said.

Collmenter, who threw 72 strikes on 104 pitches to lower his season ERA to 3.60, said his pitch location has been rock-solid in his last few starts.

“I’ve been able to locate my fastball. That’s the key to my game,” he said. “My changeup’s been as good as it’s been all year the last handful of starts. It’s been a plus pitch to have.”

The D-backs tried to mount a two-out, eighth-inning rally when Inciarte singled to center and Peavy hit Owings with a pitch. But in relief of Peavy, Sergio Romo forced Pollock to fly out to end the inning, and Santiago Casilla pitched a perfect ninth for his 16th save of the year.

“Peavy actually made more mistakes the first game he pitched against us [one earned run in 5.2 innings on Thursday in San Francisco], and we didn’t get him. Tonight, he was nails. He was really good,” Gibson said. “He was really spotting the ball, locating it well … You’ve got to tip your cap to both (Peavy and Collmenter) tonight.”

THE GOOD

With a single to center to lead off the bottom of the first, Inciarte extended his hitting streak to five games. The 23-year-old has three doubles, three runs scored and two stolen bases in those games.

Trumbo’s bat has come alive. After belting his second career grand slam in the D-backs’ 6-2 win over the Giants on Monday, he blooped a one-out double into shallow center off Peavy in the fourth inning. Trumbo has seven hits, including three extra-base hits, in his last four games.

Owings’ triple was his sixth of the season. Only David Peralta has more for Arizona this year (nine).

THE BAD

The Diamondbacks are just 6-12 on the season against the Giants. The only team that has been more dominant against Arizona in 2014 is the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, who have won 15 of 19 matchups.

Posey likes playing against Collmenter and the D-backs. The 27-year-old came in to the game with a .643 career batting average vs. Collmenter, and he has four home runs and 16 RBI vs. Arizona this season. The only team Posey has enjoyed playing more this season is the Colorado Rockies, against whom he has five homers and 17 RBI.

After going 0-for-4 on Tuesday, Miguel Montero has just one hit in his last six games.

STAT OF THE GAME

3: Peavy has allowed just three earned runs in his last five starts, including two ER in two games against the D-backs during that span.

NOTED

• The D-backs’ 2001 World Series trophy, along with the 2014 championship trophies of the Arizona Rattlers and Phoenix Mercury, were on display at Chase Field on Tuesday night. The Rattlers’ and Mercury’s trophies along with both teams’ general managers and Rattlers head coach Kevin Guy took the field to a nice round of applause during a brief ceremony after the first inning.

• D-backs right fielder Brett Jackson, who was recalled from Triple-A Reno on Sept. 12, got his first Major League start since 2012 on Tuesday. The 26-year-old from Berkeley, California, earned a walk in his first plate appearance with two outs in the second inning. For the game, Jackson went 0-for-2 with a walk, a strikeout and a groundout.

HE SAID IT

“I don’t know, maybe the ball looks like a beach ball to him. I’m not sure. In, out, up, down, soft, hard — it doesn’t matter. He seems to get the bat on it.” – Collmenter on Posey’s dominant numbers against him

UP NEXT

The Diamondbacks-Giants series winner will be decided Wednesday in a matinee matchup.

Right-hander Randall Delgado, who is 3-4 with a 5.48 ERA on the season, is set to start for Arizona. Delgado gave up three runs on seven hits in 4.0 innings of work in the D-backs’ 6-2 loss at the Giants on Thursday, and he has a 5.11 ERA in 12.1 innings pitched vs. the Giants this season.

For San Francisco, 18-game winner Madison Bumgarner will take the hill. The lefty has a 2.91 ERA and is fourth in the National League with 208 strikeouts this season. Also, he has a 1.96 ERA in 18.1 IP against Arizona in 2014.

First pitch is set for 12:40 p.m. The game can be heard on ESPN Phoenix 620 AM.

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Dose of Venom: Peavy outduels Collmenter as Giants even series with Diamondbacks