In a welcome new twist to the season, the Giants won for the first time when Matt Cain started the game. It wasn't pretty. For the first time in his career, Cain gave up three home runs in one inning. That turned a 3-0 Giants lead into a 4-3 deficit, but the lads battled back and got help from the 'pen and ended their losing streak with a 6-4 victory in Arizona. Matty had another dubious 'first' this season, giving up nine runs in one inning against the Cardinals in San Francisco. Our boy likes to make history, I suppose. At some point, you figure, everyone has a bad day, bad week, bad month, or even a bad season. Cain's had what I think we ought to call a bad month, leading the NL in homers allowed (9) and earned runs (25). Hey, you win a World Series and everyone comes after you. If you are going to 'serve notice' to the defending champs that you want their shoulder patches, you muscle up against their number one. I think perhaps this is a case of "in the crosshairs" blues--the Giants are the team you have to make a statement against if you want October baseball. The pretenders to the throne are lining up to take whacks at our guys. It's been a little rocky, but the orange-and-black are still standing, still taking shots, and getting off some counter-punches and a combination or two. Just wait until the later rounds, I say, and we'll see if these others have the stones to hang around.
Hunter Pence is going to have to get used to teams walking Buster Posey in front of him. He needs to make the most of his chances. Brandon Belt, it was good to see, got the late hit that plated the winning runs in the 8th. Marco Scutaro looked like the guy who hit .360 last year, Pablo Sandoval continues to rake (let's hope his injury is minor), and Gregor Blanco had a hit, a walk, and a run scored. Jean Machi looked strong in relief, he's going to play a bigger role with Jeremy Affeldt on the DL and Jose Mijares on bereavement leave. Javier Lopez got two strikeouts in his stint, and Santiago Casilla and Sergio Romo did their jobs. The D-Backs scored all their runs in the 4th and only managed two hits the rest of the way. The Giants hottest pitcher, Madison Bumgarner, goes tonight.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
2 comments:
4 walks last night for Matt. It seems as though he was missing, both off the plate and over the plate. That's not good, but it doesn't suggest a physical problem. In any case, the Giants won and we can hope that they take the series and put that nasty little five game stretch in the past.
Yeah, it's strange. Cain is so consistent he verges on boring. This has been a hell of a stretch. But he'll turn it around, of that I'm sure.
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