Opening Day . . . Not!

Today was supposed to be Opening Day for Major League Baseball. The Giants were to open against the Dodgers in LA this afternoon. Opening Day has been marked in my calendar since I knew the date. I remember more than once, back when I was a working stiff, calling in sick in order to attend the Home Opener. I'm sure many of you have done the same!

This extraordinary response to the COVID-19 pandemic has robbed me of my favorite pastime--following the San Francisco Giants. That's a real bummer! At the same time I am encouraged by my fellow humans. People are really trying to do the right thing and fight off this virus. I'm not often proud of the human race, but lately I've been impressed. Folks are taking this thing seriously and doing what needs doing. Look past the callous shortsightedness and the vainglorious posturing of our so-called leaders in this crisis. Look to your neighbors, friends, and families. Listen to people who actually know something about diseases**. Communities will take care of business, all we can hope is that the apparatus of government will help and not hinder those efforts. (Don't forget to give a shout out to all those folks who have to leave home every day and go to work in order to provide us with essential services. They have to risk infection so we that we can be safe. I gave my mail carrier a big thumbs up and hearty thank you yesterday. From ten feet away, naturally.)

Tonight we are firing up the DVD player and putting in the Matt Cain Perfect Game disc! That was a special night, one of the greatest moments ever for all Giants fans.

Stay safe. Stay home. Stay positive.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.


** WHO, CDC, HSPH, UCSF, for example

Then and Now

I've a DVD of Matt Cain's perfect game from 2012 and we watched it last night. Even though we knew the outcome we still got shpilkes as the outs piled up. It was a great performance, of course, and a milestone for the franchise, and Matty was at the peak of his powers and would lead the team to a World Series title. The next few seasons weren't so kind to the big righty and he eventually had to have multiple surgeries just to stay in the game. He's now penciled in as the team's fifth starter. I remember when he came up (way back in '05) the "talk" was all about his simple, repeatable mechanics and how that would serve him well in his career. And those mechanics did indeed serve him well for about 250 starts. But mechanical soundness also requires physical health and even the guy they call The Horse succumbed to the rigors of pitching in the bigs.

The Houston Astros team that Cain and the Giants beat that night in June was in the midst of three last-place finishes, all of those teams losing over 100 games per season. Only three players--Jose Altuve, Jason Castro, and Jed Lowrie--on the field for the Astros that night were on their 2015 playoff team. With Lowrie back on the A's only Castro and Altuve are suiting up for the 2016 team. That's a lot of changes in a short span but they obviously worked! The 2012 season was their 51st in the NL, they were shipped off to the AL for 2013. Their AAA affiliate is now the Fresno Grizzlies after the Giants hooked up with the Sacramento River Cats.**

The Giants had a few guys on the field then that are no longer with the club: Joaquin Arias, Pablo Sandoval, Ryan Theriot, Emmanuel Burriss, and Melky Cabrera. But Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Buster Posey, Gregor Blanco, and Angel Pagan remain. (Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro had yet to join the club.) Coming back to Matt Cain, what can we expect of the 31-year old with 1872 innings under his belt and 7734 batters faced over eleven seasons? I wish I could answer that. Here's what I'd like to think: his veteran savvy clutchness will give him the mental tools to succeed. If his body responds to the post-operative therapies then he will be a good pitcher again. Will he be the All-Star he was? That's more of a stretch for me, but the good news is that he doesn't have to be. "Fifth starter" doesn't seem to fit next to his name, but with Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto as co-aces and Jeff Samardzija as the new innings-eater the pressure is off Matty (and Jake Peavy as well) to put up big numbers. Stolid consistency has always been Cain's calling card and that's what the team will need. He can do that. Maybe his average game score won't reach the high peaks we saw from 2009-2012, but he'll rack up his share of quality starts and that will be hugely valuable.

**I tagged the reference to the River Cats because the Giants will be playing an exhibition game in Sacramento on Wednesday, March 30th. Neither website has information other than the date and time (6:05 pm) but I think it would be really fun to go. If you guys hear or see anything about this game (er, BroBob?) in the meantime please let me know!

I'm trying not to enjoy the spring weather we are having here as I'm not done with my ski season. I need a few more big storms and powder days. They can have all the sun they want in Arizona, I want some El Niño action.

Otherwise, GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Nats walk all over Cain, Giants

Thirteen years ago, Russ Ortiz walked the first three guys he faced. Tonight, a nearly full moon hanging low in the sky, Matt Cain walked the first three guys he faced. Neither game turned out well. The Padres beat the Giants 10-7 that afternoon in 2001, and the Nationals beat the Giants 6-2 this evening for their third win in three chances. The Giants have lost three straight for only the second time this season--they lost three consecutive 2-1 games from April 17th to April 19th, the first to the Dodgers and the next two to the Padres. It wasn't long ago that San Francisco was the hottest club on the planet, winning their last five series and boasting the best record. Washington, though, has served notice with ten wins in their last twelve games including a 17-5 pasting of the home team at AT&T Park. The Nationals seized first place in the NL East with tonight's win, and their +50 run difference is just behind the Giants at +53 (Oakland rules the roost at +130).

Cain did not have the command he showed in his last start--his five walks were just shy of his career high of six. Giving up the home run in the 5th to Jayson Werth after making him look foolish was a particularly cruel blow. It was to be a moral victory of sorts, putting up zeroes after the ugly start to the game, getting a shut down inning after the Giants finally scored, but that's not how it worked out. Matty has yet to find his groove in 2014, and his ten starts are the fewest of the five in the rotation. Here's a guy, you'd think, who has seen it all in his ten years, everything from last place and losing records to World Series rings, All-Star Games, and perfection. Just last year he gave up nine runs in one inning! Before tonight, though, Matt Cain had never walked the first three guys he'd faced in a game. Baseball is funny--if some new horror hasn't happened to you it's only because you haven't played long enough!

There's one more shot at the Nationals tomorrow afternoon with Tim Hudson on the mound.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Recurring Cardinals Nightmare Sinks Cain and Giants

Matt Cain had the freakiest inning of his career at home against the Cardinals in April, and damn close to the same thing happened again today in St. Louis. He cruised through the first six batters, looking sharp and in command, then all of a sudden he was in the stretch and the hailstorm of hits would not stop. Is he mechanically unsound? Mentally unfocused? Tipping his pitches? What the hell is going on? I wish I knew. It was not fun to watch, that much I can say. Maybe the Cards are still pissed about losing the LCS and save their extra-special efforts for the Giants. Then again, they are the best team in baseball right now, and hit the snot out of the ball no matter who they play. The lineup was missing both Angel Pagan and Pablo Sandoval and surrendered feebly to Shelby Miller's fastball, making the first game of the doubleheader a mismatch. They say "hitting is contagious," so perhaps bad starting pitching is as well. The Giants have not been able to keep the quality starts coming, something quite out of character for this club. Cain looked like he'd righted the ship the last two times out, yielding a total of six hits and zero homers and the team won both games. He had four good starts out of five for the month of May, and the team won all five, but flipping the calendar to June released the Hounds of Hell. Cain has now given up 46 runs (7 today, all in the 3rd) in 74-1/3 innings!

After our boy signed his mega-extension, he responded in Year One with a one-hitter in the Home Opener, followed it with The First Perfect Game in Franchise History, then a win in the All-Star Game, and finally a World Series Title. Not bad. Not bad at all. Hell, that's almost worth a hundred mill right there! But Year Two is not going according to plan. Not according to plan at all.

Matty darlin', I could never be angry with ye. Disappointed now and then, for sure. We all have our ups and downs, this I know only too well. Right now, though, I'm feeling something new. I'm shaken. Aye, that's it. Shaken. Like if Caruso hit a sour note, or Picasso's pencil ran off the page. Come back to us, lad, and soon.

--M.C.

RMC Sweeeeeeepstakes!

That was fun, eh? I can get used to sweeping the Dodgers. Way to go, Giants!

I promised I would put together a little contest for the site this week, and I can't think of a better time than right now. Matt Cain got the win in the final game of the set in LA, and this trivia quiz is in honor of no. 18 and El Perfecto. How fortunate we are to have Matt Cain on our favorite ball club. Did I mention he was signed through 2017?

I just received my DVD from A+E Networks Home Entertainment/MLB Productions in the mail this afternoon. You can check it out here, that is, here:

http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.jsp?productId=13117893&cp=1452365.2184768

Pretty cool, wouldn't you say? Don't you want one? Heck, it's a $12.99 value (plus shipping)! And all you have to do is answer some questions. In this age of Google, Baseball-Reference, and Wikipedia, all trivia contests are easy, so get cracking! First two people to answer all ten correctly win the above DVD of El Perfecto. You can enter multiple times, but you have to put in all ten answers every time. I'll go by the blog time-stamp to pick the winners. Post your answers as comments on this blog post. Note: I don't actually have your prizes--you'll have to send me (via mcoc13@gmail.com) your snail mail address so I can forward it to them so they can send it directly to you (Continental US only). Got it? Have fun and good luck.

All answers are individuals associated with the San Francisco Giants.

1. His first name is actually Dustin. He's from Mississippi and has a son named Whit.
2. Duane Kuiper had his own nickname for our now-disgraced left fielder.
3. This Syracuse grad took over the mic when Flemm's failed for Bond's 715^th HR.
4. The East Tennesse State Buccaneers have produced two Giants. One was Atlee Hammaker. The other was part of the deal that sent Dusty Baker to the Dodgers.
5. This Giant lost part of his fingers to a table saw and still tried to play baseball.
6. He's the oldest of the Rojas boys.
7. Both are from New Jersey and both threw no-hitters, but only one led the league in WHIP.
8. He was drafted by the Giants but pitched against them in the 2000 LDS.
9. His latest project is “The Restless Kind.”
10. This Original San Francisco Giant makes a mean BBQ.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

 

Outta Gas in SD

The Little Engine That Could couldn't quite do it today. It ran out of gas after the first inning. Ryan Vogelsong had another uncharacteristic start and the Giants never got anything going against old antagonist Clayton Richard. I'm not concerned about Vogie, everyone has ups and downs. He'll get his groove back. The lineup really looked flat, they will need to swing the bats a little better in LA. The Giants go to Chavez LAtrine down in the standings by 1/2 game, and the first man they'll face is Clayton Kershaw. Super southpaw Madison Bumgarner gets the match-up. It's crunch time, mates.

In other news, I am expecting a review copy of a DVD of Matt Cain's perfect game very soon. It's put out by A+E Networks Home Entertainment/MLB Productions, part of their "Baseball's Greatest Games" series. I don't usually do anything promotional on this site, but they contacted me about running a giveaway and I couldn't pass it up. Matt Cain! C'mon, Matt Cain. Anyway, I've got a trivia quiz put together that I'll post soon. There will be two winners and each will receive a copy of the video from A+E. Sound like fun? Details to follow.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

The Final Fifty-Four

1st inning: 9-9
2nd inning: 9-9
3rd inning: 12-6
4th inning: 10-8
5th inning: 10-8
6th inning: 9-9

Sunday's win behind Timmy in Colorado finished the first two-thirds of the season (Game 108). It was a bit of a rough patch, that 6th inning, and tonight's affair was the first of the 7th inning and the first of the final third of the season. The Dodgers won't be gentlemen about it, they have no intention of letting the Giants have the last dance to themselves. They are going to have to be called outside for an ass-whuppin' before the good guys get the goods. It's going to require everyone on the team to step up and be studly. With Tim Lincecum emerging and Pablo Sandoval returning one can feel good about the Giants chances.

Then there's Matt Cain. It's no secret he has not been the same guy since El Perfecto. He made a nice splash in the All-Star Game, as did the rest of the orange-and-blackers, but the starts since then have not been up to snuff. To wit:

                                                   
Date    Opp Rslt    IP   H  R ER BB  SO HR HBP  BF GSc
Jun18   LAA W5-3   5.0   6  3  3  4   4  1   1  25  43
Jun24   OAK L2-4   7.0   3  1  1  2   7  0   1  26  72
Jun29   CIN L1-5   6.2  11  5  5  1   7  2   0  32  38
Jul5    WSN L5-6   6.2   6  3  3  1   4  2   0  26  53
Jul15   HOU W3-2   6.1   5  2  1  1   6  0   0  25  62
Jul21   PHI W6-5   8.0   5  5  5  2   4  3   1  30  54
Jul27   LAD L3-5   7.0   9  3  3  0   2  0   0  29  49
Aug1    NYM L1-2   5.0   7  2  2  3   5  1   0  23  47

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/6/2012.

Now that's some pretty good pitching. For most guys, that is. 51-2/3 IP, 52 H, 24 R, 39 SO, 14 BB, and  9 HR over 8 starts will get you a regular gig in the majors (52 average Game Score). But Matt Cain is no longer just another regular. He's earned the right to be paid like an ace and to be treated like an ace and that means he now has to pitch like one. (Matt gave up 9 total home runs 2011, for example.) It's not like any of these starts were Zitovian meltdowns, although last week against the Mets came damn close if not for some lucky breaks and good fielding. Tonight was about as close to a meltdown as Cain gets. All players go through rough patches, and if this is as rough as it gets for Matty I can hardly complain. But stretch drive is here. The pennant race is on. This is when it gets decided. The Giants will have to get Master Cain back out there for the 7th, 8th and 9th innings.

Tonight in St. Louis against an excellent hitting squad our boy could not finish the job. He'd get to two strikes or to two outs (or both) and give it up. They wore him down and chased him in the 6th with a patient, relentless attack. Normally we see Matt hold his own and get those big outs, but this is not the same Cain we watched in the first half of the season. Is he tired? Hurt? Or just on the bottom end of a long slump? We never have the answers to those questions, do we? There's a lot more on big righty's shoulders these days. It used to be nobody noticed, and when they did, they undervalued what they saw. You win a World Series ring, an All-Star Game, and pitch a perfect game, people pay more attention. Teams pay more attention. (Not to mention the gargantuan contract and the scrutiny that comes with that.) The marquee name on the squad has a rough first half, the second name on the list gets bumped up. It's the big leagues, you can fly under the radar for just so long. Looks like everyone has Matty in their sights right now. He's going to have to fine tune that out-making machine real soon, and get back to delivering the kind of starts he's spoiled us with so many times before.

7th inning: 0-1, 17 to play.


--M.C.

First Place Tim

Start #16    WIN !!!  ( 3-8 )    7 innings     4 hits    ZERO runs     2 walks    8 strikeouts

If 27 straight batters retired is a perfect game, wouldn't that make 27 straight scoreless innings a PERFECT SERIES ??!!??  Hell yeah!!  Does it get any better than this???  I think not.  Let's go over some of the details of today's excellent 3-0 victory and all the associated joy, shall we?

1)  We are in FIRST PLACE.   The season is effectively reset and the ridiculous dogger wonder start is a thing of the past.  The doggers are obviously crippled and Arizona lost their ace ( Daniel Hudson ) for the year, so the race is looking very Giants friendly at the moment.
2)  Tim Lincecum may very well have refound his "freak."  Today was his best start of the season ( game score 75 ) and his second consecutive quality start.  The only extra base hit was by Chad Billingsley and
he was stranded at third, which, by the way, was the only smog sucker to get that far all series long.  Tim seemed to have all his pitches working.  He certainly had movement; sometimes too much.  Hector Sanchez, catching Lincecum for the second straight game, took a beating trying to block some crazy pitches in the dirt.  Tim unleashed two more more wild pitches, which gives him 9 for the season.  One of them lead to a collision at the plate with Timmeh taking the hit but getting a generous call.  I sure wish he would quit doing that.
3)  We are in FIRST PLACE.
4)  Our starters are quietly doing one of those crazy things again.  That makes one earned run allowed in the last 31 innings.   They all (even Beezy sometimes) seem ready to rip off a brilliant performance.  When Tim gets back up to full speed, which may well be right now, our rotation takes on intimidating proprotions. 
5)  Making history is way cool.  Today is not as sweet as Matt's perfection, of course, but doing this beautiful thing, THREE CONSECUTIVE SHUTOUTS OVER THE doggers, is as gratifying as it gets. I mean it warms my heart. We put up with a lot of crap, you know, all that "torture" and Tim's tough spell.  We deserved this.   I will sleep well tonight.
Oh, and, of course, 6)

WE ARE IN FIRST PLACE !!

Perfecto!

We've all known that one day Matt Cain was going to throw a no-hitter. We've all seen him flirt with that over the seven-plus seasons he's been a Giant. It was only a matter of time before everything fell into place and he put his name in the record books. Tonight Matt Cain threw the first and only perfect game in the history of the New York-San Francisco Giants, and as wonderful and exciting as that moment was, it was no surprise to us. We know this guy is a great pitcher and he's gradually convincing the rest of the baseball world that he belongs in the discussion of "best in the game."

Number break: Matt Cain's Game Score (101) was tied for the second-best of all time, and matched Sandy Koufax for the most strikeouts (14) in a perfect game. Sandy Fecking Koufax, lads. I mean, I know he's Dodger scum and all, but he was one of the greatest pitchers ever, and a personal fave of our man of the hour. So take a moment and appreciate the glory. It's the 22nd perfecto overall in the big scheme of things (9th in the NL), and what will be always and forever about it is what I said before. It's the first by a Giant. Christy Mathewson? Carl Hubbell? Hell, those dudes are f---. Juan Marichal? Gaylord Perry? Whatever, some of us are old enough to remember them. Matt Cain. Number 18. That's the man. That's the number. (Did I forget the 125 pitches, the most ever in a perfect game?)

I think it was Duane on the CSN-BA telecast, right at the end of the game, that reminded us that this spring started with a lot of speculation about where Cain would wind up when he became a free agent. Yankees? Red Sox? Dodgers? It was unpleasant, to say the least. Then they signed the big deal to make him the new face of the franchise--he'll be a Giant through 2017--and everything was OK. And how did Matt respond? By throwing a one-hit shutout on Opening Day. And following that up with tonight's magnificent performance, one for the ages. This is one cool cat. He's 27 and he's The Old Man. The vet. The grizzled champ. The leader. Greg Papa called Tim Lincecum "the rock star," and that's apt. Cain's the horse, they all like to say, and that works, too. He's the motor. He's a big diesel that hums along for half a million miles and never skips a beat or fails to pull a load. You'll have to forgive the redneck metaphor, I'm deep in a bottle of Tennessee Whiskey (George Dickel No. 12), appropriate stuff to drink when the Tennessee Stud takes the hill. He's the rhythm section of the band. The re-bar in the concrete. The tough outer casing on those pepperoni sticks that keeps them from going bad.

Matt Cain. Matt Cain! Matt Cain. When I run out of things to say, I just say his name. Matt Cain. It could not have happened to a better Giant. He deserves the accolades. He deserves ten runs of support. He deserves your support. But you knew that already.

Matt Cain.


--M.C.



p.s. Great play by Gregor Blanco. The narrative of every no-hitter or perfect game has to have a great play or two. Nice work from Arias, too. The ball Melky caught at the wall I was sure was a homer. A friendly gust off the  bay or just another magic pitch from Matt Cain? No one induces the harmless fly ball out better than M.C. And that's a saber-metrical fact, yo.


p.p.s.