Blue Jays-Giants Preview

Jake Peavy has surrendered 13 runs in his last two starts. Aaron Sanchez has given up 13 runs all season.

Factor in a struggling offense and the San Francisco Giants could have their work cut out for them Monday night at home against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Sanchez (2-1, 2.82 ERA) turned in another quality start in Wednesday's 4-3 home win over Texas, yielding three runs and seven hits in seven innings and settling for a no-decision. The 23-year-old gave up three runs in the first two innings before settling in for five scoreless.

"Not that the way I wanted it to start but I'll definitely take the way it finished," said Sanchez, who will be making his first interleague start.

The right-hander has limited his walks to 2.82 per nine innings a season after posting a 4.29 mark, and the result is an opponent on-base percentage that's down to .291 from .320.

Peavy (1-3, 9.00) might welcome any of those numbers at the moment. The veteran right-hander gave up seven runs and eight hits -- four home runs -- in six innings of Wednesday's 7-4 loss in Cincinnati.

It followed a six-run, two-inning effort in a 13-1 loss at the New York Mets on April 29.

"He's as tough as there is," manager Bruce Bochy told MLB's official website. "I can assure you that he's hard on himself, harder than anybody. I'm sure he's not happy or content with the way things are going, but he's been through it. He went through it last year. He bounced back and pitched well. You look to the old adage: it's not how you start, it's how you finish. We'll get him right. He'll get it right and get on a roll here."

Peavy is 3-2 with a 3.64 ERA in eight career starts against the Blue Jays. Russell Martin (4 for 35 with 11 strikeouts), Edwin Encarnacion (5 for 23) and Jose Bautista (5 for 23) have all struggled against him.

Toronto (16-17) might not need much out of them if the Giants (17-16) can't find an offensive spark. After Sunday's 2-0 home loss to Colorado, they've been shut out through nine innings in consecutive games.

"I didn't see that coming with this offense," Bochy said. "We've been in a little rut the last couple of days with the bats. Just got to get them going."

San Francisco is 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position in its last two and is batting .234 in those situations over the last six. Prior to that, the Giants were at .286.

Part of it falls on Buster Posey, who's 0 for 13 in the last three games and 5 for 31 with runners in scoring position this year.

"I need to be better at it," Posey said. "I haven't been good enough at it this year. Sometimes it's as easy as getting back to the basics and simplifying things."

The Blue Jays dropped the last two of a three-game home series with the Los Angeles Dodgers and also struggled to score with two runs in both of the losses. They're batting .209 with 3.7 runs per game over a 6-6 span, and 12 of the 44 runs they've scored in that period came in one game.

Troy Tulowitzki was 0 for 3 in Sunday's 4-2 loss and is 4 for 40 with 14 strikeouts in 11 games since his last multihit effort. Bautista is 5 for 43 in his last 12.