SAN FRANCISCO -- Vida Blue refused to stop dreaming about his 200th major-league victory, and Sunday made it a reality.
'He deserves to be a 200-game winner,' Steve Garvey said Sunday after Blue reached the milestone in a 4-0 San Francisco shutout that completed a four-game sweep by the Giants.
'My hat's off to him for getting where he is,' said Padres shortstop Garry Templeton. 'It was a good piece of pitching.'
Blue, 36, who had finished last season with a 199-191 career record, admitted he was primed for the game.
'There was all the excitment about winning 200 games, and I was trying to relax and not throw too hard,' said the onetime fire-baller who has leaned more toward finesse in later years.
'My purpose was to win the game and forget about everything else,' Blue said. 'They're making too much of me winning 200 games. It's more important to think about how well the team is doing.'
Surprising San Francisco, celler-dwellers all last season and the first Giants team to lose 100 games, moved to within one-half game of first in the NL West.
'I never thought I would get a chance to win 200 when I was suspended from baseball in 1984,' said the onetime Oakland ace, referring to his drug-related hiatus. 'That set me back, but such is life. It was a big day for me and the Giants.'
Blue's teammates were pumped up for the 200th, including outfielder Chili Davis, who contributed a two-run homer.
'Everytime Vida pitched, it seemed like he still needed that one victory to get to 200,' said Davis. 'We were just as aware of it as he was, and wanted to help him get it. I swung at the first good pitch I saw.'
Blue allowed five hits and struck out two before leaving the game with a slight hamstring pull suffered when he scored the Giants' first run in the third inning. Jeff Robinson pitched four hitless innings of relief for his first save.
The Giants scored all four runs in the third off loser Dave Dravecky, 1-1.
Blue led off with a walk and advanced to third when Dravecky made a wild throw on Dan Gladden's sacrifice. Gladden reached second on the error. With runners on second and third, Will Clark's sacrifce fly scored Blue and moved Gladden to third.
Jeff Leonard singled home Gladden, and Davis followed with his first homer of the seaosn, a line drive over the left field fence.
