Cain wobbly in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS — There is no logical reason for Matt Cain’s career-long struggles against the Cardinals, in San Francisco or at a very fair Busch Stadium. It’s not like he is facing the same players.
Randal Grichuk, whose three-run double in the second inning fairly decided Sunday’s 8-3 Giants loss, was 16 when the Cardinals blasted Cain for nine runs in his first start at Busch Stadium in 2008. Albert Pujols, who hit a threerun homer off Cain that night, long ago moved to Anaheim.
“This ballpark hasn’t been kind for him,” manager Bruce Bochy said after Cain wore a loss that prevented the Giants from completing their first sweep of the year.
Still, the Giants got their third consecutive series win ahead of a fairly important four-gamer against the defending World Series champion Cubs at Wrigley Field, which begins Monday night.
The Giants want to keep rolling, or at least not return the gains they have made during an 8-3 run, when they visit a ballpark that has not been their happy place the past two seasons.
The Cubs swept a four-game series from San Francisco during their run toward a 2015 wild card. Last year, the Giants were an inning away from splitting four games against a Chicago team destined for 103 wins when Santiago Casilla blew a save in the ninth and the Giants lost in 13.
The Cubs then took both Division Series games at Wrigley in October. The Giants were an inning away from returning for a decisive Game 5 — Johnny Cueto versus Jon Lester, when the ninth inning of Game 4 happened.
Cueto and Lester will pitch against each other Tuesday.
The Cubs have struggled to escape .500, causing consternation and, in some cases, downright panic on the North Side from some fans and media who think a budding dynasty needs to be up 10 games by the end of May.
“It just goes to show you that every year is different, and how hard it is to do something,” Bochy said. “If you’re talking at the All-Star break and a team is not where you think they would be, yeah, it would be surprising.
“They’re a good club. They’re going to be there making some noise.”
Cain has made plenty himself in a good comeback season. He was coming off an excellent start against the Dodgers before he allowed seven runs in 51⁄3 innings Sunday. His ERA in 13 games against the Cardinals rose to 6.62, the highest against any National League opponent.
Cain has allowed 31 earned runs in 332⁄3 innings at Busch.
Cain fell behind in the count more than usual Sunday and allowed the Cardinals to load the bases with nobody out in the second. He threw a tough 0-1 fastball to Grichuk, knee high and inside, that the right fielder lined to left just fair for a double that scored three.
Grichuk scored on a Dexter Fowler sacrifice fly that gave St. Louis a 4-0 lead.
“I didn’t feel I was all over the place,” Cain said. “I didn’t feel I was missing by much, but big innings like that are hard to recover from.”
The Cardinals added a tworun Matt Carpenter homer and an RBI double by pitcher Adam Wainwright. Down 7-1, the Giants got back-to-back homers by Brandon Crawford and Eduardo Nuñez in the eighth. With 15 consecutive solos, the Giants are six shy of their own major-league record.
The clubhouse was not down after the loss. The Giants seem to understand they had a good weekend and are playing much better baseball.
“You take it,” Bochy said. “The first two games could have gone either way. Against a good club like that, sure, we’re leaving here feeling pretty good. Trust me.”