Cain’s drought ends as Giants remain hot

Pitcher beats Cubs for first win since July

SAN FRANCISCO — In the age of sabermetrics, pitcher wins aren’t supposed to matter.

Don’t tell that to Matt Cain — he savored every minute of his first victory in 10 months.

“When you haven’t had one in a year, it’s pretty nice to have,” Cain said.

Cain pitched six strong innings and helped himself with the bat, Buster Posey added a two-run homer, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs 5-3 on Saturday.

Cain (1-5) got his first victory since July 22, 2015, snapping a streak of 15 consecutive winless starts. The Giants were 3-12 over that stretch.

“You want to go out there and give your team a chance to win,” Cain said. “When your team wins, it’s great, but it’s also nice to have one when you haven’t had one in a long time.”

The Giants won for the ninth time in 10 games, and the Cubs fell to 2-3 on their nine-game road trip.

Cain had surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow in 2014 and then did stints on the disabled list in 2015 for a flexor tendon strain and elbow nerve irritation.

He has thrown three straight quality starts for the first time since June 28 to July 9, 2014.

“I know it’s got to be a weight off his shoulders because it’s been talked about quite a bit,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Cain’s resurgence coincided with Jon Lester’s worst start of the season. Lester (4-3) allowed five runs on six hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings.

“It’s unusual,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “Jonny had a tough day. It just didn’t go his way. The bullpen was fantastic and gave us a chance to win. We had a couple of opportunities to score.”

Cain entered with the majors’ worst run support, at 1.96 runs per game, and took matters into his own hands, crushing a 3-and-2 fastball over center fielder Dexter Fowler’s head for a two-out, two-run double in the second.

Cain’s double ended his drought of 46 hitless at-bats dating to May 10, 2014.

“I probably just got lucky and ran into one there,” said Cain, who was 0-for-14 with 10 strikeouts this season, “but it was definitely nice to go out there and give the guys a good chance to get a win, especially going against a good guy like Lester.”

Posey hit a two-run homer to left — his fifth — during a three-run third in which the Giants chased Lester.

Cain’s lone mistake came in the third, when he hung a 3-and-2 slider to Kris Bryant. The Las Vegas native pounced, clearing the 399-foot sign in straightaway center with his ninth homer.

Fowler was 3-for-5, including a homer leading off the ninth against closer Santiago Casilla, who got the next three outs for his 11th save.