Matt Cain because Matt Cain. (Photo: rocor/Flickr)
On any day where the Giants’ offense does reasonably well, usually there’s a hitter of the game or two to talk about – the guy who got on base 4 times, the guy who hit an RBI single at just the right time, the guy who got a splash homer if the Giants ever manage to do that again, and so on. Today was weird. Everyone contributed, getting on base and hitting with runners in scoring position. I think the entire starting lineup besides Cain scored at least once. Nobody really had a monster game, but the Giants combined into a Voltron of competence, and it turns out that when everyone in your lineup hits a baseball pretty good, the results are kinda awesome.
So let’s talk about Matt Cain. Going into this start, Cain’s numbers since El Perfecto were not Cain-like. 6.3 innings per start, which is good; 46 K/16 BB, which is less good but actually right in line with his career numbers pre-2012; and a .790 OPS against and 4.4 ERA, which is pretty crappy. 10 dingers was the weird, scary key here. Between his pitching and the Giants’ hitting in the mid-2000s, it took Matt Cain two full seasons in MLB before he understood what a home run was. Suddenly he’s giving them up like Armando Benitez in Coors Field on the moon. Has Matt Cain’s dinger-suppression luck run out? you had to ask yourself. Continue reading
Covefficient 