Giants come up big in clutch, again, beat Nationals in series opener

Put Jake Peavy on the San Francisco Giants, and he suddenly turns into quite a postseason performer.

Same for a couple of rookies, Hunter Strickland and Joe Panik.

Seems that October aura Manager Bruce Bochy has cultivated with the Giants rubs off on anyone joining the club.

The intense Peavy took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, Strickland and the rest of San Francisco’s rested bullpen barely protected a lead, and the wild-card Giants won their league-record ninth consecutive postseason game by beating Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals, 3-2, Friday in an NL division series opener.

“Nobody is scared of the moment,” said Peavy, who won the 2007 NL Cy Young Award with San Diego and last year’s World Series with Boston, but was 0-3 with a 9.27 earned-run average in five previous starts beyond the regular season. “We understand that we might not be, man for man, the favorites.”

Perhaps they should be.

Peavy, a 33-year-old right-hander, finally earned his first postseason win, allowing two hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings, and getting plenty of help.

Strickland spent much of the season at high Class A and double A in the minors, and has all of seven major league innings on his resume, but struck out Ian Desmond swinging at a 100-mph fastball with the bases loaded in the sixth after Peavy left, cussing up a storm.

Panik provided a nice defensive play at second base to end the seventh, contributed one of San Francisco’s three RBI singles and tripled and scored the Giants’ final run.

No swinging from the heels for this bunch. No costly misplays in the field, either, such as the passed ball by Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos that led to an unearned run. That was one of a couple examples of jumpy play by a Washington team that won its division and led the NL with 96 wins but has never won a postseason series.

Under Bochy, the Giants won the World Series in 2010 and 2012. They have not lost a postseason game since trailing 3-1 against St. Louis in the NL Championship Series two years ago.

When the lights are brightest, the stage biggest, the stakes highest, San Francisco comes through.

“We’ve done it so many times now, it seems to be part of our DNA,” said Hunter Pence, who stole a base in the fourth and came home on Brandon Belt’s hit off Strasburg. “But I think the thing that we know is: What’s in the past is in the past, and we’ve got to move forward and we’ve got to be ready for the game tomorrow. Because if not, they’ll jump all over us.”

Game 2 is Saturday, with Washington’s Jordan Zimmermann — who threw a no-hitter in the regular-season finale — facing Tim Hudson.