One Thing The Dodgers Don't Have...

is anyone on their roster to match young Jake Peavy. The Padres 24-year old Cy Young candidate was masterful in shutting down the Dodgers last night, allowing only two hits and no runs over eight innings as the Friars claimed a 1-0 victory. He finished with a career high 13 strikeouts. At one point Peavy fanned eight of nine hitters. That's dealing!

And Peavy's performance could not have been any more clutch. With the Padres lurching to a 5-12 start in June mainly against AL Central opponents, Peavy kicked off a return to divisional play with the kind of performance that true number one starters deliver. About having his turn in the rotation staggered a day to position him to start against the hated Dogs, he told the San Diego Union-Tribune:

"It fired me up that they wanted me to face L.A.," the 24-year-old ace said after ending a three-game winless skid. "I wanted to face them."

That kind of confidence paired with nasty stuff yields dominant performances like the one we saw last night. In fact, the only time Peavy got into any real trouble was in the eighth inning after Phil Nevin's error allowed Hee Seop Choi to reach second base. With the tying run at second, Peavy induced a weak but troublesome grounder from Jayson Werth on which 3B Sean Burroughs made a tremendous play. Charging down the third base line, Burroughs simultaneously nabbed the ball, looked Choi back to second and fired a perfect strike to first to nail Werth. Peavy responded in kind by K'ing the next two Dodger hitters to end the threat and charged off the mound pumping his fist to the delight of 40, 000 Friar Faithful at Petco.

After enduring a debilitating upper respiratory infection a couple of weeks ago which caused Peavy to lose about 10 pounds, the young hurler had battled through a couple of lackluster outings. But in last night's big game against a division rival, Peavy clearly regained his form. Despite struggling through the health issues, last season's NL ERA champ now finds himself sitting at 6-2 and sporting a 2.56 ERA for 2005. He's also nipping at the heels of New York's Pedro Martinez in the strikeout race, trailing Martinez 114-107. And to top it all off, he seems like a really great kid. If he continues to pitch like he has thus far in 2005 it is hard to imagine a Bonds-less San Francisco or a rather pedestrian Dodger club besting the Padres in the lackluster NL West.