Peavy, Padres shut out Astros
Cy Young winner also manages RBI single and sac fly
 Stephen Dunn / Getty Images Padres ace Jake Peavy tosses a pitch against the Houston Astros on Monday. |
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SAN DIEGO - It could be an interesting few days at the Peavy household.
Jake Peavy beat his buddy Roy Oswalt with his bat as well as his arm on Monday night, leading the San Diego Padres to a 4-0 win over the Houston Astros in a season opener. The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner hit an RBI single and a sacrifice fly to go along with his seven innings of three-hit ball.
It just so happens that Oswalt is staying with Peavy and his family during the four-game series.
“I don’t know if he’s going to stay with me anymore,” Peavy cracked.
“Me and Roy have a great friendship, on and off the field. I’m sure we’re going to be able to let this go. He had some tough luck tonight. I’m glad he had tough luck. I love Roy to death, but the Padres needed to win tonight for me to be happy, and that’s what happened. I wish him well for 33, 34 more starts.”
After picking up two key RBIs against Oswalt, Peavy figured he wouldn’t rub it in ... yet.
“I don’t know if I’ll go hard at it tonight because I know how it feels to be on the losing end of a big league ballgame. Nobody’s happy,” Peavy said. “But maybe the next few days I may throw some comments out there, and I promise you, in November or December he’s not going to forget about it.”
Peavy, who’s from Alabama, and Oswalt, who’s from Mississippi, have been friends since pitching in the 2005 All-Star game.
The Padres were back in action six months after their shot at a third straight playoff berth ended in a gut-wrenching, 13-inning loss to Colorado in the wild-card tiebreaker game.
It was the second straight opening day shutout for the Padres, who had none in their first 38 seasons.
Peavy (1-0) had plenty of help in roughing up Oswalt (0-1), who was making his record sixth straight opening day start for the Astros. Tadahito Iguchi went 3-for-5 in his Padres debut and Paul McAnulty singled twice in his first opening day start. Tony Clark, who pinch-hit for Peavy long after Oswalt was gone, had an RBI single in his debut with his hometown Padres.
Oswalt allowed three runs and 11 hits in 5 1-3 innings, struck out six and walked one. He dropped to 2-2 with a 3.26 ERA on opening day. The Padres finished with 14 hits.
“I didn’t really have a whole lot tonight,” Oswalt said. “I didn’t have any breaking pitches. Pretty much had to pitch my fastball the whole night.”
Peavy has won all three of his opening day starts, with a 0.45 ERA. He allowed six baserunners Monday night, none of whom advanced past second base. Peavy struck out four and walked three. Heath Bell and Cla Meredith finished the combined four-hitter.
“I called Roy the best pitcher on the planet,” Astros manager Cecil Cooper said. “I guess I just saw the second-best pitcher on the planet tonight. He’s pretty good. It wasn’t by accident that he won the Cy Young last year. He was definitely on.”
Peavy was equally impressive with his bat.
He drove in his catcher, Josh Bard, in both the second and fourth innings. Bard hit a one-out double to left in the second, advanced on McAnulty’s single and scored on Peavy’s sac fly to left.
Bard singled to left with one out in the fourth, advanced on McAnulty’s single and scored on Peavy’s base hit to right-center.
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It turns out Peavy missed the bunt sign.
“I need to get better with the signs, I guess. I didn’t know the bunt was on until they took it off. In hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t bunt,” Peavy said.
“He cheated on me the first time,” Oswalt said. “He acted like he was going to bunt. The same thing the second time, with runners on first and second, I thought no doubt they’re going to bunt and move ’em to second and third. He cheated on the first fastball and hit it over the infield.”
Oswalt fell to 7-2 against the Padres lifetime and 3-1 in San Diego.
He was hit on the upper right leg by Kevin Kouzmanoff’s line drive for a single in the first inning. After being checked by the trainers, he took a warmup pitch and fired it over catcher Brad Ausmus’ head.
Oswalt said getting hit had nothing to do with his rough outing.
“I was terrible from the get-go, way before he hit me,” Oswalt said.
The Padres made it 3-0 in the fifth when Adrian Gonzalez singled in Iguchi, who was aboard on a leadoff double.
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