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| (October 21, 2014 - Source: Jamie Squire/Getty Images North America) |
For the second consecutive season, 33-year old RHP Jake Peavy was traded in July from a worst place team to a team destined for the World Series. He will have a chance to bring home his second straight championship ring when he takes the mound for Game 6 against the Kansas City Royals tonight at Kauffman Stadium.
On July 30th of last season, Peavy was traded to the eventual world champion Boston Red Sox in a three-way trade involving the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers. Boston would go on to defeat the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series, giving Peavy his first opportunity at a World Series ring in his 12 year career.
Peavy made his World Series debut by starting the third game of that series, and although he only lasted four innings, he allowed just two earned runs and gave his team an opportunity to win the ballgame. What most people will remember about that game, however, is the famous obstruction call in the bottom of the ninth, the first of its kind to end a World Series game in MLB history:
Fast forward to July 26th of this season, Peavy was once again traded as part of Boston’s massive roster overhaul, to the San Francisco Giants for pitching prospects Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree.
After a rough start to his season, partly due to Boston’s inability to give him any run support, Peavy rebounded nicely posting a 6-4 record with a 2.17 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 12 starts for San Francisco.
On August 30, Peavy nearly threw the first no-hitter of his career against the Milwaukee Brewers. He would finish the night with 7 2/3 scoreless innings and eight strikeouts, including the 2,000th of his career.
The Mobile, Alabama native was drafted 472nd overall by the San Diego Padres in the 15th round of the 1999 Major League Baseball Draft. After going 44-1 during his high school career, including 13-0 his senior year, Peavy turned down an offer to play for the Auburn University Tigers to accept his first professional contract.
Peavy would work his way up through the minors before making his major league debut with the Padres in June of 2002. In his first professional season he would go on to make 17 starts for San Diego, owning a 6-7 record with a 4.52 ERA and 1.42 WHIP in 91.2 innings pitched.
Yet it wasn’t until 2004 that Peavy would start to make his name as one of the top pitchers in baseball. That season Jake put up a respectable 15-6 record, but even more impressive was his National League leading 2.27 ERA, all while striking out nearly ten batters per nine innings.
A few seasons later in 2007, the 6”1’ righty would have the greatest season of his career. Peavy would put up a 19-6 record to go along with a 2.54 ERA and 240 strikeouts; good for the National League’s pitching Triple Crown and Cy Young awards.
Although he has struggled to replicate that same success since his Triple Crown performance in 2007, it’s no secret that Peavy is regarded as one of the better teammates and clubhouse presences in the majors, which should be obvious after by back-to-back mid-season acquisitions by World Series contenders:
"He brought a lot of fire when he came here," said Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy. "We have a great culture here, but he added to it and brought a lot of intensity.
"The guys can see how he goes about his business and the respect he gets from the other pitchers, how he competes -- he really took them to another level."
Bruce Bochy was actually Peavy’s former manager in San Diego, and played a huge role in acquiring the pitcher who had gone winless in his last 15 starts with the Boston Red Sox.
"Boch was a huge support, not surprisingly," stated Giants’ general manager Brian Sabean, "We thought getting him over here in a pitcher's ballpark, a pitcher's division, with one less hitter and no DH, this was a chance to reinvigorate him."
After an impressive second half of the season, Peavy has had an average postseason for the Giants thus far, but will look to improve on that tonight in order to bring San Francisco their third World Series title in the last five years.
In his three playoff starts in 2014, Peavy holds a 1-1 record with a pedestrian 3.90 ERA and 1.41 WHIP. He has had to rely more on finesse than the power he possessed earlier in his career, which is evident by his 0.72 K/BB ratio this postseason.
When asked at this point in his career what it would feel like to be the winning pitcher in the clinching game of the World Series?
"I can't imagine anything being any sweeter than that," Peavy says. "That's what you play for, to be in the World Series and to win it. To be the guy that gets the ball with that opportunity.
"It's a special opportunity. I understand that. And I will do all I can do to be in the moment, to find anyway, anyhow, for the San Francisco Giants to win that game.
"And I promise you I will exhaust every option."
One thing is for certain; with a chance to bring his team a World Series championship, Jake Peavy will leave everything he has on the mound tonight at Kauffman Stadium. If he is able to lead his team to a Game 6 victory, the only question remaining will be whether or not he will purchase a San Francisco cable car to go with the duck boat he bought after last years’ Red Sox championship parade.
