Peavy shines to lead streaking Giants

AT&T PARK — Saturday was the deepest Giants starter Jake Peavy ever carried a no-hit bid, taking his 7-1/3 innings as San Francisco beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1.

Peavy (W, 3-4, 2.66 ERA) also passed the 2,000 strikeout milestone in the third. Peavy is fifth active player to reach the 2K club along with C.C. Sabathia (2,437), A.J. Burnett (2,337), Bartolo Colon (2,082) and teammate Tim Hudson (2,002).

Manager Bruce Bochy marveled at Peavy’s performance after Saturday’s game:

“What a game he had tonight. He really had good stuff and kept the ball down. He mixed it up very well and the defense played very well.”

Brandon Crawford made two sterling plays at shortstop to keep Peavy’s no-hitter going.

He ranged deep to his right in the fifth and fired a quick, jumping throw to get Aramis Ramirez. Then in the seventh, Crawford made a diving stop to his left to induce the inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

Bochy spoke highly of Crawford’s defensive mastery:

“His defense is so good it’s hard not to have him out there. That’s the player that he is. He can win you a game on defense.”

With one out in the eighth, Mark Reynolds, who had the lowest batting average in Saturday’s lineup of any position player (.200), flared a single into no-man’s land in right field.

Peavy finished his 7-2/3 innings with 113 pitches, eight strikeouts and one hit.

The Giants put up three runs in the third on a booming opposite-field, two-run double by Michael Morse and an RBI single from Crawford.

Santiago Casilla surrendered a run in the ninth, but notched his 13th save to end the night.

Brewers starter Mike Fiers (L, 4-2, 1.93 ERA) suffered his second loss of the season after seven innings, a season-high three earned runs and nine strike outs.

The Los Angeles Dodgers lost to the San Diego Padres in extra innings again shortly after the Giants wrapped up their win.

The Giants are now 2-1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West.

Bochy said that September pitching will be critical down the stretch for the Giants:

“It’s going to be really exciting this month. It’s going to be important that we continue to get this pitching and timely hits.”

The Giants look to sweep the series Sunday when Madison Bumgarner (15-9, 3.02 ERA) battles righty Kyle Lohse (12-7, 3.42 ERA). Game time is 1:05 p.m.

Notes

Hunter Pence extended his hit streak to 12 games with a single in the fourth. … The Giants now hold a season-tying five-game winning streak in AT&T Park. … Dating back to Thursday, the Giants recorded a hit in 12-straight innings. The streak ended Saturday in the second. The last time they had as long a streak was June 13-14, 2013.

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