Giants bullpen stumbles in loss to Padres

SAN DIEGO The N.L. West must have appeared winnable enough to the San Francisco Giants’ Jake Peavy on Wednesday night.

Why else would he field a grounder, attempt a headfirst slide to beat the runner to first base and reach out to touch the bag with his pitching hand, of all possible body parts?

It must have appeared winnable to Buster Posey. How else could he burn down the third base line, a season’s weight on his quads, to score the tying run on a wild pitch with two outs in the ninth inning?

The N.L. West appeared far less winnable by the end of a draining, 5-4 loss to the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.

Peavy gave his all in six shutout innings, and Giants manager Bruce Bochy used nine more pitchers while desperately trying to get every possible matchup over the next three. It did not work. The Giants bullpen blew leads in the seventh and eighth, and their tying rally in the ninth against Padres closer Craig Kimbrel only delayed the eventual disappointment.

Matt Kemp doubled off George Kontos, and Jedd Gyorko hit a winning single off Santiago Casilla a final demerit that the Giants’ record could not bear.

Meanwhile, up Interstate 5 at Dodger Stadium, the N.L. West leaders staged their own eighth-inning rally and beat the Arizona Diamondbacks. Instead of shaving into the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lead for the fourth consecutive day, the Giants might want to speak to Pope Francis about a little holy intercession. They fell to seven back with 11 to play.

At least Peavy didn’t break, bruise or sprain anything when he clutched a baseball in his bare hand and lunged for the bag to end the fourth inning. The Giants have sacrificed enough this season.

Yet their replacements from the Pacific Coast League are playing beyond all expectations in an attempt to keep them relevant. One day after rookie Trevor Brown’s single helped the Giants win, outfielder Jarrett Parker pounded a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning. Parker’s opposite-field drive came on a 95 mph fastball from Joaquin Benoit and bounced like a racquetball off the Western Metal Supply Building in the left field corner.

It came one inning after Parker took a questionable route in right field and was unable to cut off a tying, two-run double from Yangervis Solarte off lefty Josh Osich.

The lead that Parker provided didn’t last long, either. Sergio Romo let it slip in the eighth when he gave up a two-run double to Travis Jankowski.

The Giants managed to tie it in the ninth when Posey reached on Kemp’s fielding error in right field, moved to third on Brandon Crawford’s double and sprinted home on a fastball from Kimbrel that sailed to the backstop.

The Giants spent most of the game gathering momentum behind Peavy, who entered with a 2.78 ERA in 91 career starts at Petco Park all but one of them in a Padres uniform. He outperformed Andrew Cashner, who was almost untouchable after a bout of first-inning wildness that Crawford exploited with a two-out, two-run single.

The Giants did not threaten again in Cashner’s six innings; the right-hander’s explosive stuff even coaxed two harmless pop-ups from Posey.

But Peavy positioned them to win anyway, just as he’s done most of the time since rejoining the rotation in July. The Giants entered with a 9-3 record in Peavy’s previous 12 starts.

Peavy gave his all in six shutout innings but his decision went poof along with the Giants’ two-run lead on Solarte’s double.

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