San Diego Saturdays: Former Padres Making Playoff Push Together

Back in 2002 a young Jake Peavy made his Major League debut with the San Diego Padres. His manager at the time was Bruce Bochy who had been there since 1995. Bochy’s final game as the Padres manager would come in 2006 and by then Peavy was turning himself into one of the best pitchers in the National League. In 2007 he won the National League Cy Young Award, leading the league in strikeouts (240), ERA (2.54) and wins (19).

He was selected to two All-Star Games while with the Padres and was the ace of their staff for multiple seasons. But in 2009 with Bruce Bochy managing in San Francisco with the Giants the Padres traded Peavy to the Chicago White Sox in the middle of the season. Peavy

Sep 17, 2014; Phoenix, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. The Giants defeated the Diamondbacks 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

would pitch well in his three full season with the White Sox, going 25-25 with a 4.07 ERA in 67 starts.

Before the 2013 Trade Deadline Peavy was shipped off to the Red Sox where he’d help bring a World Series championship. He was traded a third time by the Red Sox to the Giants for a bundle of the some of San Francisco’s top prospects. Now, reunited with his first manager Peavy finds himself in the middle of another playoff push.

Peavy’s first few starts with the Giants weren’t the best but in his 12 starts he posted a 6-4 record with a 2.17 ERA. After San Francisco’s ace Madison Bumgarner won the NL Wild Card Game Bochy showed his faith in Peavy by starting him in Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Washington Nationals. Peavy came through and tossed 5.2 innings, allowing no runs on just 2 hits and leading the Giants to a victory.

Bochy, who has won two World Series since coming to San Francisco is in his eighth season with the Giants. Since his departure the Padres have had just one manager, Bud Black, who will be staying with the team in 2015 despite some rumblings that he might be fired. After being apart for eight seasons Peavy and Bochy are finally back together and making a playoff charge together.

If Peavy could help San Francisco win the World Series for the third time since 2010 it’d be another poetic story that baseball loves to cook up. San Diego, Chicago, Boston and now San Francisco the former ace of the Padres has had a long and successful journey and still only 33 years old it’ll be interesting to see where he’ll go next but for right now him and San Francisco’s beloved manager have some big games to win.