Peavy slammed, Giants lose 6-4

Expectations are the name of the game. You'd expect the Giants to win three out of their first seven games this season. That's sort of a best case scenario. And not solely because they played all seven on the road but because they played all seven short-handed... with that handedness shortening even more over those seven games due to injury.

You'd expect Jake Peavy to look not only rusty coming back from DEAD ARM of all things but also because he hasn't been very good at pitching baseballs recently, save for his post-trade time with the Giants (World Series most certainly excluded). You might not have expected his start to begin as it did -- two strikeouts and a groundout in the first inning, a quiet enough second followed by a double play that silenced the third -- but the Biff Tannenesque collision with a manure truck of a fourth inning was certainly something you might've expected when you saw him listed as today's starter.

Peavy pitched today like Bumgarner did yesterday. He had his stuff, control of his pitches, but he just could not command the strike zone. And let's face it, the pitches he can control need every millimeter of command available in the known universe. The blow it by them fastball has transitioned into a fool 'em pitch and his sharp slider has turned into a C-student slider. So if you don't expect Peavy to provide quality innings then you couldn't possibly be surprised by today's results.

And yet, the game essentially came down to one really bad pitch. Buster Posey set the fastball target away, Jake Peavy's 89er drifted from away into Nieves' wheelhouse, and his long, reckless swing connected for an unfortunate grand slam. You would've expected the Padres to bash the Giants' heads in with relentless dingfoolery, but you wouldn't have expected those fools to be Wil Nieves and Will Venable.

★★★

Some other things you might've expected before sitting down to watch this one:

• Brandon Belt had some good at bats in his first game back following a groin pull that laid him out for two games.
• Matt Duffy looked good at the plate and at third base as well.
• Buster Posey homered and it looked great.
• Nori Aoki can hit, but where he really entertains is in the field.

★★★

These are good signs. Not a good sign: Jean Machi has appeared in four out of seven games so far.

But it's one week of the season. The only way it could've been terrible would've been if the Giants failed to win at all. 3-4 heading into the third ring ceremony in five years? We'll take it.