Big hits from #8 Pence, #28 Posey, and #38 Morse helped Matt Cain (#18) beat the Marlins in San Francisco tonight. Matty struggled early, giving up two homers and four runs in the first three innings, but found his groove late and pitched into the 8th inning. The final tally was 33 batters, 107 pitches and 23 outs, the first time this season Cain has gone that far. Jeremy Affeldt got a strikeout to end the 8th and Sergio Romo only needed nine pitches for a 1-2-3 9th and the save. Giants win 6-4 over a persistent nemesis, the once-Florida-now-Miami Marlins, who seem to bring the big sticks whenever they come to AT&T.
The momentum swing happened in the 5th, Giants down 4-3, when Angel Pagan worked a walk from an 0-2 count, forcing 10 pitches out of Nathan Eovaldi. Hunter Pence then hit a dribbler down the first base line that he ran into and it kicked into foul territory off the side of his foot. He should have been called out as he was clearly inside the line and it was a live ball. The home plate umpire, Lance Barksdale, ruled it a foul however, and thus Pence got another shot. The umps got into a huddle but let the call stand, and it apparently is not reviewable under the new video replay guidelines so the Giants got a huge break. Buster Posey capitalized by crushing the next pitch into Triples Alley and drive in the go-ahead runs. The Giants seem to be in the middle of all the interesting calls this season! You have to believe the replay rules will get tweaked after that one.
Mike Morse blasted an opposite-field homer in the 3rd with two outs and a man on to help the team claw back from a 4-1 hole. He had an RBI single in the 5th as well for the final run. He's cooled off quite a bit from his torrid start, so it's nice to see him finding his stroke again. The Giants lineup faced some serious heat tonight yet they pounded out 12 hits and wrested victory from the jaws of defeat. That's 16 runs and 27 hits in the last two games!
Cainer has three starts out of seven total where's he's allowed multiple homers--two with two and one with three. The team has won two of those three games, and lost the two back-to-starts where he went seven in each with a run apiece (Game Scores of 70 and 73!) and zero homers. Go figure! It's the crazy world of Matt Cain baseball. Giants are rolling right now and have the most wins (27) in baseball. They were 11-10 after a loss in Colorado on April 22nd and have gone 16-5 since.
Tim Hudson was scratched due to injury, soreness in his hip apparently. Hey, he's an old man (38) in baseball years. A little rest for the current ace of the club is not a bad idea. Yumeiro Petit gets the start--this is a potent Miami lineup, he'll need to be sharp.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
6 comments:
I'm glad Cain got his first W, but there have been multiple examples of why the individual W is nearly meaningless. Like when Romo earned one by virtue of having blown a save.
I totally agree about that rewarding a poor performance. I would prefer that in that situation, it becomes like the situation when the team wins after a starter goes less than 5 but left with the lead, the official scorer gives the win to the pitcher he felt most deserved it.
This way, if a starter did well enough to win, left with the lead, but then a reliever let the game get tied, but then the team won with the win currently going to that reliever blowing the save, the scorer can return the win back to the starter. Or to any reliever he felt did the best among the pitchers.
"Wins" always make me think of Kirk Rueter, the Winningest Lefthander in San Francisco Giants History.
Rueter was 105-80 in 277 starts in his ten seasons with the club. Matt Cain has 272 starts in ten seasons for the orange and black and is 94-91. He's got 11 fewer wins and 11 more losses!
B-R rates Cain as 32.2 WAR compared to Rueter's 12.3. Matt's ERA is 3.38 (118 ERA+), Kirk's 4.27 (97 ERA+). FIP 3.70 to 4.74.
Don't get me wrong, I love Kirk Rueter. He was part of some great teams. His best years were 97, 00, and 02, all playoff seasons.
The "win" stat could use a fix, that's for sure.
Saturday night, top of the 5th, Giants trailing 1-0 to the Marlins. Lincecum lover JC is off participating in some sort of bacchanalian event, so he asked me to cover the Timmeh show tonight. It's been too long since I've written an actual post and I seemed have lost the ability to do so, so a "heckle " will have to do.
Tim got out #3 and now Crawford is at bat. It appears that Tim is in the process of being "Cained," i.e. pitching well but without any offensive support. This hasn't occurred many times so far this season. The Giants are a veritable offensive juggernaut this year. (Three up, three down, on to the sixth)
Seventh inning stretch time and things went crap after my last entry. Tim got abused in the 6th, Huff just gave up a homer to Stanton and the Giants still have produced a goose egg in the R column. "Never say die" with this club, but it feels like a stinker at this point.
Oh and PS, Pagan is hurt, which is muy ominous to me.
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