ATLANTA -- Circumstances prevented Jake Peavy from stealing a base Tuesday night, but he basically stole the show from himself in the sixth inning of the Giants' 4-0 triumph over the Atlanta Braves.
With two outs in the sixth, Peavy smashed a two-out single to center field for San Francisco's second hit off Braves starter Matt Wisler. Peavy bolted for second base on the first pitch to the next hitter, Denard Span, who happened to line a triple that broke a scoreless tie.
That accelerated the Giants toward the finish line of a highly successful May. San Francisco's 16th win in 19 games sealed its record for the month at 21-8 -- the team's third consecutive May of 20 wins or more. The Giants are 3-2 halfway through their three-city, 10-game trip.
The inevitable assumption -- that Giants manager Bruce Bochy executed yet another shrewd move by sending Peavy -- was incorrect. Peavy ran on his own.
"I was just trying to make something happen; the situation of the game just dictated it," he said. "That's the fun of being in the National League."

Peavy's running didn't quite upstage the one-hitter he pitched over seven innings for his 149th career victory, but it certainly served as an intriguing postgame conversation piece.
"Jake, he's so competitive," said Bochy, who managed Peavy in San Diego during the right-hander's first five Major League seasons. "He was determined to get into scoring position."
Said Peavy, "I know enough about Boch that he would have understood had I got thrown out."
In that event, Peavy noted, Span would have led off the next inning, which represented an acceptable alternative.
Peavy's dash prompted almost as many jocular remarks as the combination of his artful pitching and his 35th birthday.
"I would have liked to see the result if I hadn't swung," Span said.
"In the back of my mind, I thought he was going to go," Bochy said. "I'll bet he thinks he got a great jump."
"It would have been fun to see if I would have gotten my first stolen base out of it," Peavy admitted.
Peavy ultimately entrenched himself in baseball trivia. He became the ninth pitcher since 2000 to work at least seven scoreless innings on his birthday, and the first to do so since Ryan Dempster and Josh Beckett in 2012. Moreover, he ended a winless streak of six starts, during which he went 0-4 with a 7.57 ERA.
"I know what the numbers and all that jazz look like. But it's been nice inside here," Peavy said in the confines of the clubhouse. "Nobody's panicked [and everyone has] treated me so well. It's nice to show people you can still win on this level when you have doubters out there."