Matt Cain

Last night, I went to see the Giants game at PacBell Park. I was planning to go with Ben, but he was not feeling well. Barbara was not feeling well either, so I went on my own and I had a great time! It was a crucial late-season game. The Giants are 3.5 games behind the Padres in the wild card race. They badly need to win this game so that they can gain some ground on the team from San Diego. The Padres came into the game with a 5 game winning streak. They are starting their ace, Jake Peavy, who has been pitching brilliantly for the Padres. The Giants are starting their phenomenal rookie, Matt Cain. Earlier in the year, Cain had troubles with his control. However he has recently settled down and he has been just as brilliant for the Giants. So I was really excited about seeing a well-pitched game. As an additional bonus, it was Randy Winn bobble-head night!

The game lived up to my expectations. Matt Cain was incredible. His fastball was exploding on the hitters. His curveball was huge. It would just drop as it got into the strike zone. Cain shut out the Padres over 7 innings. Not only did he not allow a run, he only allowed one hit! At this point, he had thrown about 120 pitches and was pulled from the game. At the same time, Jake Peavy had been very impressive as well, just not as impressive as Cain. The Giants were able to scratch out 3 runs against Peavy over the same 7 innings. It should be noted that these were not easy runs. The first run is a great example. Leading off for the Giants in the first inning, Randy Winn (bobble-head guy) got a tough single. He stole second, Vizquel bunted him to third and Winn scored on a weak grounder by Hillenbrand. Anyway, the Giants had a 3-0 lead after 7 full innings.

At this point, the Giants pulled Cain and turned the game over to the relief pitchers. The Giants relievers were able to complete the shutout of the Padres. Moises Alou hit a solo home run in the eighth and the game ended up a 4-0 Giants win. It was a great game to watch. Both starting pitchers were superb, the defense was flawless, and the game was tense until Alou's 8th inning home run. And of course, it does not hurt that the Giants won the game against one of their key rivals.

As I mentioned earlier, Matt Cain has been very impressive lately. In his last 5 starts, he has only allowed one run. Of his 27 starts this year, five times he has only allowed one hit. This is from a 21-year-old rookie. Some are talking about him being a leading rookie of the year candidate. Others are mentioning him as developing into a dominant superstar pitcher for a long, long time. I would argue that it is too early for that. There is a long list of pitchers who have had incredible rookie years and then faded into obscurity. However it is undeniable that Cain is pitching very well right now and it is exciting to see this young man develop. Many die-hard Giants fans are talking excitedly about Cain's next start on Thursday. Alas, I have tickets to next Wednesday's game, not Thursday!