SAN FRANCISCO -- Had Bud Black known just how swimmingly easy his managerial debut would have gone, he might well have given it a go long before he did Tuesday.

Of course, the Padres' 7-0 victory over the Giants in front of a sold-out crowd at AT&T Park hardly merits a blip on the 162-game radar screen and Black certainly realizes this as much as anyone.

But boy, did it look easy.

"It's one game of many," Black said, trying to sound as pragmatic as a manager could be after winning his first game on a day where emotions and storylines were swirling more than the winds did through China Basin.

There was Black's first game as the Padres' manager. There was former Padres manager Bruce Bochy's first game against his former team. There was a pregame parade of former All-Stars, including Willie Mays, and the debut of the Giants' $126 million man, Barry Zito.

And it was, not to be forgotten, Opening Day.

"I was anxious and I was excited," Black said. "I don't know if nervous was the word."

How does mundane sound?

The Padres did their best to render Black's first day as a manager, well, boring. They did so by taking most of the tough decisions out of the equation early with a blissful display of strong pitching and timely hitting.

It started with, well, the starting pitcher, as Jake Peavy tied the Giants' hitters in knots for the second consecutive Opening Day by yielding three hits -- including what equated to a swinging bunt for one hit -- over six scoreless innings with six strikeouts.

The bullpen duo of Cla Meredith and Heath Bell finished what Peavy started, helping to give the Padres their first Opening Day shutout in team history by tossing the final three scoreless innings.

But Peavy set the tone early by pounding the strike zone with fastballs, maybe more than he has thrown in recent memory, something catcher Josh Bard occasionally has to remind Peavy of.

"He really threw his fastball today," said Bard, who had a career-best four hits in five at-bats. "He's such a student of the game that he watches other pitchers to see what they do and then he wants to do some of those things himself. He just has to be himself. Today, he didn't try to reinvent the wheel."

No, it never got that far, as Peavy seldom had reason to sweat. Each of the three hits he allowed came with two outs in the inning, including a nubber in front of the mound by former Padre Dave Roberts in the third inning that traveled 30 or so feet.

"Peavy threw well. ... He's on top of his game when he wants to be," Bochy said. "He's had the winter off. I'm sure he's fresh and feels good. When Jake's on top of his game, like I said, he's going to throw well. I mean, you've got your work cut out."

As for the offense, the one that led all teams in Spring Training in home runs, the Padres scored seven runs on 12 hits without the benefit of a home run, no hits from leadoff hitter Marcus Giles and only two combined hits between Nos. 3 and 4 hitters Mike Cameron and Adrian Gonzalez.

"I am of the opinion that's what this team brings," said Padres left fielder Jose Cruz Jr., who drove in two runs, had a triple and scored a run. "Maybe we don't have that huge, giant name but we've got a good group of players who have good approaches."

And, as was the case Tuesday, it might not always be guys like Cameron and Gonzalez who figure to be the primary run producers in a lineup that the team has touted will be much better than the group that finished 13th in the National League in runs last season.

Brian Giles had two doubles and showed there's still plenty of life left in his 36-year-old legs. Bard finished the game with four consecutive hits after flying out in the first inning and looks like he has the makeup for an ideal No. 4 or No. 5 hitter.

Third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff fouled off several nasty Zito curveballs in the fourth inning before lining a single to left field that extended a two-run inning, driving up Zito's pitch count on a day where the left-hander's command (two walks and five hits over five innings) wasn't as it typically was when he pitched on the other side of the Bay.

"He's still herky-jerky with a lot of deception and a big curveball," Cruz said. "We put some good at-bats together and made it tough on him and got his pitch count up. That's what you have to do against the guy like that."

Once Zito was out of the game, the Padres feasted on a Giants bullpen that figures to be their Achilles' heel, scoring four runs on eight hits over the final four innings. Each of the Padres' eight position starters -- with the exception of Marcus Giles -- had a hit.

Even when the Padres got in what resembled a jam, Meredith coaxed former Padre Ryan Klesko into bouncing into a thorny 4-6-3 double play started with a tough pivot by Giles at second base to end the seventh inning.

It was like, really, the Padres could do no wrong.

Of course, games like this don't come around often, though Black wouldn't mind if they did. But he's prepared for when things go bad, when, say, the Padres find themselves on the other end of outcomes such as Tuesday's game.

Yes, this might well have been Black's first game as a manager but from the sounds of it, it appears he has already gotten the memo on who, inevitably, is responsible for success at the Major League level.

"I like the part about helping a team win," Black said. "But ultimately, it's the players that help teams win games.