Cain’s 3-run HR gives life to offense
SAN FRANCISCO — Don’t bury Matt Cain just yet.
The beleaguered veteran right-hander, perhaps in jeopardy of losing his job in the rotation with another rocky outing, showed the Giants enough in a 9-7 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at AT&T Park Tuesday night that he’ll surely survive to see another start or two.
Cain, 1-6 with a 5.88 ERA coming into a game the slumping Giants desperately needed to win, saved himself on the mound and at the plate. He pitched into the sixth inning, and while he allowed four runs, including a pair of home runs, he finally struck back after so many hitters have taken him deep. He ripped a three-run homer of his own, his first long ball since 2012, in a four-run Giants second inning.
Cain walked one, struck out four and ultimately departed
after Adam Duvall took him deep with the first of two home runs the former Giant hit. San Francisco’s home run bugaboo continued, as they surrendered four more bombs to the Reds. But they generated plenty of offense of their own to withstand the Cincinnati onslaught. The Giants have now given up 23 home runs in 10 games since the break but maintained their 2½-game lead in the National League West with the victory.
Cain was terrific through the first three innings, allowing just a two-out walk in the first and Billy Hamilton’s two-out double in the third.
Meanwhile, the Giants appeared to be on their way to a runaway offensive victory thanks to Cain’s blast in a four-run second off Reds rookie starter Cody Reed. Brandon Crawford opened the inning with an infield single, Brandon Belt hit a ball to left-center that left fielder Adam Duvall dropped, and Ramiro Pena’s infield single to short scored Crawford.
Belt, trying to take third on Pena’s grounder, was initially ruled out, but the Giants won a replay challenge
“We don’t do anything easy. They’re all big right now. What we’re going through, to get a win is a good thing right now.” — Giants manager Bruce Bochy, on his team getting only its second win since the break
and Cain subsequently stepped up and hammered a 1-1 pitch into the left field seats to make it 4-0.
The Giants added another run in the third when they loaded the bases on three singles. With one out, Grant Green appeared to hit into an inning-ending double play, but Belt stopped in the baseline and, upon another replay review, was ruled safe, evading the tag of second baseman Brandon Phillips.
The Reds got one back in the fourth on Joey Votto’s 18th home run and made it 4-2 in on a Hamilton two-out RBI single in the fifth. The Giants countered with a run in the bottom of the fifth when Buster Posey singled, went to second on a wild pitch, stole third base (Posey’s sixth steal in six attempts this season) and scored on a Green sacrifice fly.
Things finally got dicey for Cain in the sixth, his third time through the order. Votto led off the inning with a single and, after Jay Bruce hit a deep fly out to right, Duvall took Cain over the wall for a two-run homer, his 24th.
Manager Bruce Bochy wasted no time getting Cain out right at that point after a 78-pitch night in which he walked one and struck out four. George Kontos finished the inning, and four more Giants’ relievers managed to the job over the final three innings.
The Giants added three insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh on Brandon Crawford’s tworun triple and pinch hitter Conor Gillaspie’s run-scoring single for a 9-4 lead, but even that didn’t seem safe when Jay Bruce and Duvall hit back-to-back homers against Sergio Romo to lead off the eighth. Romo settled down and escaped further damage, however, and Santiago Casilla pitched the ninth for his 22nd save.
Third baseman Matt n Duffy said he hopes to be back very soon, and credits acupuncture as one of the biggest reasons. The third baseman said he had a team-supervised acupuncture treatment recently, and while he still felt significant pain in his left Achilles tendon for a few days afterward, which he said worried team doctors, all of a sudden the pain dissipated significantly after about four days and he felt more progress than he’d had since leaving the lineup on June 19.
Duffy has been running curves the past couple of days at AT&T and will run bases Thursday and Friday. If he passes that test, he’ll likely begin his rehab Saturday with Triple-A Sacramento.
Joe Panik went 0 for 3 n with a run scored in his first rehab game back from concussion symptoms with the River Cats. Hunter Pence hit his second homer in his fifth game playing for Sacramento on a rehab assignment.