Nice way to start the season, eh? First Opening Day shutout in club history (recap | box score). Sure, that works.

Jake Peavy had a strong outing, spinning six scoreless innings against the Giants at PhoneCo. One of the things we’ve harped on here in the past is the need for Peavy to pitch with greater efficiency. Last season, only four NL moundsmen used more pitches per plate appearance than Peavy’s 3.97. Anecdotally, it seemed that he had trouble putting batters away once he got ahead in the count.

Tuesday night’s outing was a mixed bag in terms of efficiency. The negative is that Peavy needed 98 pitches to get through 6 innings — not horrible, but not great. He faced 23 batters in the game, which works out to 4.26 P/PA.

With a few notable exceptions, though, Peavy did a fairly good job of finishing off hitters once he got ahead. He threw 27 two-strike pitches on Tuesday, and they break down as follows:

• ball: 9
• foul ball: 5
• ground ball: 5
• called strike: 3
• swinging strike: 3
• fly out: 2

Of the five ground balls, two resulted in singles. In the first inning, Peavy induced Barry Bonds to take a very awkward swing on a 3-2 slider; thanks to an exaggerated defensive shift, the ball trickled through the left side of the infield for a base hit. Then in the third, Dave Roberts nubbed a 2-2 slider up the first base line that Peavy kicked; it was a tough play and correctly ruled a hit.

The troublesome at-bats came against Bonds in the first (three balls after getting ahead, 0-2), Pedro Feliz in the second (two balls and two fouls after getting ahead, 1-2), and Rich Aurilia in the sixth (three balls and a foul after getting ahead, 0-2). I understand working carefully to Bonds, but with the kind of stuff Peavy has, you’d like to see him be a little more aggressive with Feliz and Aurilia. The two balls to Feliz just missed outside, but still, there’s never a reason to throw that guy eight pitches.

Anyway, we’re nitpicking. Peavy looked real good. The Giants mounted only two semi-serious threats all night. In the first inning, after Bonds singled to left, he caught the Padres napping and stole second. Then Ray Durham hit a routine grounder to Khalil Greene that should have ended the inning. Greene threw low and miracle worker Adrian Gonzalez couldn’t come up with the ball. Bonds, perhaps feeling a little extra adrenaline surge from the stolen base, tried to score standing up but was thrown out with ease.

The one other chance for San Francisco came in the seventh. Cla Meredith allowed a leadoff single to Bengie Molina. The next batter, Feliz, worked the count full before flailing at a pitch that was at least a foot outside. Randy Winn followed with a single before Ryan Klesko rapped into a first-pitch 4-6-3 double play to end the threat. If Feliz takes the 3-2 pitch, this inning gets real interesting.

On the offensive side, Brian Giles, Gonzalez, Josh Bard, Greene, and Jose Cruz Jr. all looked good. Giles and Gonzalez both stayed in nicely against tough left-handers, and both were robbed of base hits by Ray Durham, who made two terrific diving stops to his left.

Bard was a monster, collecting four hits in his final four at-bats. He got in some good swings from both sides of the plate and even had a nice six-pitch at-bat the one time he didn’t get a hit.

Greene drove in the Padres’ fifth run with a sharp single to left in the eighth. Before that, in the second, he took Roberts to the center field wall on a 1-1 curve from Zito.

Cruz did a great job at the plate and in the field. He drew a bases-loaded walk in the fourth that helped push Zito toward the end of his line. Later, batting left-handed, Cruz crushed an 0-2 offering from reliever Kevin Correia that hit the base of the wall in deepest center field. I’m pretty sure that one is a homer at Petco Park.

Speaking of Zito, the $126 million man cruised through the first three innings, using just 32 pitches. Then his command and defense deserted him, and he needed 37 pitches to get through the fourth. That inning, after Cameron walked and Bard singled, Greene reached on an error by Feliz, and Kevin Kouzmanoff “singled” to left on a soft liner that dropped in front of Bonds. Before long, the Padres had extended their lead to 3-0.

I almost feel for Bruce Bochy. Almost. It was his choice to move north, and now there he is. Still, the guy has a third baseman that can’t hit or field, possibly the worst defensive outfield in baseball, and a suspect bullpen. It’s only one game, but I can’t stop wondering how long it is before Giants fans grow accustomed to seeing Bochy remove his cap and run his fingers through his hair.

Like I said, almost. They are the enemy, yo.

Great start to the season. Awesome to see Bud Black get that first victory out of the way. If his team can swing about 90 more of those over the next six months, we’ll be in good shape.

Here’s hoping…