Giants’ Jake Peavy near-perfect in birthday win

Washington: San Francisco pitcher Jake Peavy celebrated his 35th birthday on Tuesday by throwing seven scoreless innings, getting one hit and scoring a run in the Giants’ 4-0 victory over the Braves in Atlanta.

Peavy notched up his first win since April 23 and his first career win at Turner Field.

“What a beautiful game he pitched,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

“If he wasn’t turning 35 today, I might have left him in there,” Bochy quipped.

He faced the minimum batters in his seven innings and allowed only one hit. He struck out three without issuing a walk, and threw 57 of his 77 pitches for strikes.

“You’ve got to tip your cap to him,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. “We hit a couple balls hard but nothing to match him. It was some performance for his birthday.”

Peavy scored a run in the sixth inning to break up a scoreless tie. The rally started when Peavy reached first with two outs on a broken-bat single.

Peavy was running on the next pitch and easily scored when Denard Span lined a triple into the gap in right-centre.

The Giants put the game away by scoring three times in the eighth inning.