Cain and Giants zero in

Ian Kinsler smoked an 0-2 mistake leading off the 5th into deep center field. Andres Torres turned and hustled back to the warning track in front of the 399-foot sign and watched the ball come down. It hit the top of the fence and caromed right back to him. Torres fired it back to the infield, holding the stunned Kinsler at second base. He clearly was wondering which of the baseball gods he had pissed off. By all rights, that blast should have broken the tie--it was a nail-biting 0-0 pitcher's duel at that point between Cain and Texas lefty C.J. Wilson. It was as close as the Rangers would come to scoring. Cain stranded Kinsler, and in the bottom of the same inning, Edgar Renteria showed the visitors how it was done by hitting a 388-foot bomb down the line in left field to take a 1-0 lead. The Rangers would put two on in the 6th, and Cain would wild pitch the runners to second and third with one out, but blow away the next two guys to keep it one-zip. After a dominating one-two-three 7th, Cody Ross and Juan Uribe would team up for a second Giants run and suddenly Texas, with six outs remaining, was staring into an 0-2 hole. Cain came out for the 8th to face the 9-spot and the leadoff hitters, with Josh Hamilton looming. With Javier Lopez warming up in the bullpen, you knew he'd be called on if the lefty slugger got a chance to hit. Cain walked Elvis Andrus with one out, and Buster Posey just missed throwing him out on a steal, the ball bouncing off Renteria's glove. After Michael Young flied out, Ol' Boch came out to get his big righty. I'll admit the testosterone side of me wanted Matt to go after Hamilton and finish the inning. But the safe, conservative move was the right one, and Lopez made short work of the threat. It was a 2-0 Giants game, a page right out of the "pitch like hell and hope for the best" playbook, exactly the kind of thing everyone was expecting from the squad in orange and black.

Then all the weird shit happened. The Giants scored SEVEN runs after two were out in the 8th. The Texas bullpen had an epic meltdown, walking in two runs and then giving up a single, a triple, and a double to make it a 9-0 game. It's hardly comprehensible, even as I sit here and re-imagine it. I'm not capable of describing it accurately. It was both the weirdest and the most wonderful inning in Giants history. A taut, tight, dramatic game ended as a laugher after an excruciating display of poor pitching and probably worse managing. It was so bad that the Giants were able to use last man Guillermo Mota to finish the game, and he did so with relaxed ease.

The Giants find themselves up 2-0 in the World Series after once again demonstrating remarkable poise and patience at the plate, flashing some absolutely stellar leather, and pounding the strike zone with nasty shit batter after batter, inning after inning. Matt Cain stepped up and delivered another string of zeroes, continuing his remarkable post-season run. For all the craziness tonight, and all the contributions from the lineup and the bench guys, it all started with Cain retiring the first seven guys he saw and 12 of his first 13. It was a huge performance and a well-deserved win for the man who rarely gets the run support he should. The Texas Rangers had only been shut out five times in the regular season, and were 14-4 in inter-league play. I hope they enjoyed their trip to San Francisco.

GO GIANTS! WIN!! WIN!!

--M.C.



UPDATE (0707 Friday): Take a look at Baseball Musings. David Pinto does a nice graphic look at Matt's pitch locations. He says the pitch to Kinsler was a good one, it was just a case of a good hitter getting a good rip in. OK, I'll buy it. It looked like it caught too much of the plate when I saw it live, but that happened in the blink of an eye (and I'm not known for my eyesight!). I also think that when my boy Matty gives up a bomb it's because he missed his spot and not because the other guy is good. Great visuals and a fun way to bask in Cain's awesomeness.

UPDATE (1128 Saturday): Speaking of basking in Matt Cain's awesomeness, Peter Gammons has this to say about our guy:

But in many ways the face of this series is Matt Cain. He has no pretense of having an "it" factor. In the last two years, he's 27-19 with a 3.02 ERA and the lowest run support on his staff. He's thrown 441 innings in those two seasons, hasn't missed a start, has failed to finish the fifth inning three times and finished the eighth and/or the ninth 26 times.

He has thrown 21 1/3 innings in three starts in this postseason against the Braves, Phillies and Rangers and has not allowed an earned run. He has allowed one hit in 15 at-bats with runners in scoring position.