Cain is bright spot as skid reaches 5
DENVER — As luck would have it, the season Matt Cain finally regained his health is the season the franchise would just as soon forget.
The longest-tenured Giant has never seen anything quite like this. A team expected to contend that consistently plays bad baseball. Struggles across the board — pitching, hitting, fielding. Shows no signs of recovery. And remains on target to set a franchise record for losses.
The latest boo-boo was Saturday’s 5-1 loss to the Rockies, featuring more mishaps on the bases, in the field, out of the bullpen and especially at the plate with runners in scoring position.
“Once we get back to the hotel today, we can kind of flush this one and start over tomorrow,” Cain said. “It’s easy to sit here and say that. But it’s something we’ve got to find a way to grind through. It’s definitely been hard for all the guys. All the staff. Everybody who’s been watching. It’s not been easy.”
Saturday’s only positive was Cain, who gave up two runs (one earned) in five innings and did what fellow starters Matt Moore and Jeff Samardzija didn’t do the previous two nights: keep the Giants close.
Cain broke into the majors as a 20-year-old in 2005, and the worst season on his watch was 2007, Barry Bonds’ swan song, when the Giants lost 91 games and finished 19 games out of first place.
This year’s team is on pace to lose more than 100 and already is 18½ out.
How do Cain and his teammates keep coping and grinding?
“It is difficult. But that’s our job. That’s our duty. Why we put our uniform on. That’s what we signed up for,” Cain said. “You can’t just expect to go out there and win all the games and for everything to be peaches.”
Cain has had his share of clunkers this season, but Saturday’s outing wasn’t one of them. He retired his first five batters before yielding three straight singles for Colorado’s first run. He gave up another run in the fifth.
It was unearned because of Nick Hundley’s passed ball, though Cain took the blame and said he threw a fastball, which wasn’t called. The ball ticked off Hundley’s mitt and pelted umpire
Gabe Morales. After a brief delay, Cain needed to retire Trevor Story to escape the inning, but Story’s single broke the tie.
“I just completely forgot what we were doing there,” Cain said of his pitch that led to the passed ball. “For Gabe right there, that’s not fun to be a part of. I just hope he’s all right.”
Manager Bruce Bochy pulled Cain in the top of the sixth for pinch-hitter Brandon Belt with two outs and two aboard. With his 94th and final pitch, rookie left-hander Kyle Freeland blew a fastball by Belt. Reliever Bryan Morris replaced Cain and surrendered three runs.
After sporting a 2.30 ERA in his first five starts, Cain struggled with a 7.13 ERA in the next eight. He entered with an 8.40 road ERA.
Saturday, he showed earlyseason form.
That he simply shows up every five days is an improvement on the past three years when he missed extensive time with injuries. He hasn’t made 30 starts since 2013.
“It’s been a better year for him,” Bochy said. “Sure, he’s had some hits and misses, but overall a much improved year for him. Today he gave us all he had. He wanted to break this streak, this rut we’re in.”