As the Dodgers’ lead over the Giants in the NL West grows, the Giants have one glaring problem that must be addressed. How many more games can the Giants continue to send Cain to the mound after his loss on Wednesday? The Giants are in the midst of a 9-21 stretch and can’t afford to continue losing games they should win. Now, especially after Cain’s performance against Pittsburgh, it is obvious he is not the pitcher the Giants had during their 2010 and 2012 playoff runs. In previous seasons when Cain has struggled, many of his problems were associated with injuries the right-hander was experiencing, mostly in his arm, but this season has been different.
After a rough start Friday against the Orioles in which he only lasted four innings, Cain looked ready to bounce back on Wednesday. He cruised through the first four innings, retiring the first eight batters, only giving up one hit into the fifth inning. But then in the fifth, things changed and Cain reverted to the pitcher the Giants saw for 13 games last season and in parts of this season. He lost control and loaded the bases and walked in a run on a hit by pitch, followed by three consecutive walks.
He used his strong defense to his advantage in those first four innings, and made quick work of the Pirates lineup, retiring 13 batters on just 52 pitches, while only throwing 15 balls. But when Cain started off the fifth, he stopped pitching to contact and it cost him.
“I think I was just trying to make too good of pitches instead of staying a little more aggressive,” Cain said. “We didn’t need that to happen today. That’s a bad job by me.”
The lack of aggressiveness put Cain into a tough situation, which allowed the Pirates back into the game without having to do much work at all. It took the Pirates only one hit to tie the game up; Cain did the rest of the work for them. And the big blow of the day came when Andrew McCutchen came up to bat with two outs and a runner on and Cain threw the Pirates number three hitter an 89 mile per hour fastball that McCutchen drove over the left field wall. That ended Cain’s day.
After the game, Bochy admitted he had faith in his starter to get out of the jam, but it just didn’t turn out the way he had hoped.
“I felt he had enough to get out of that tied. Obviously I stuck with him too long there. He just lost his release point. One inning just got away from us,” added Bochy.
Cain is now 4-8 on the season, holds a 5.81 ERA– higher than any other season with the Giants, and has no injury to fall back on as an excuse. So what’s next for the right-hander? His is scheduled to pitch next on Tuesday in Los Angeles to open what looks to be a crucial series for the Giants. Prior to Wednesday’s game, manager Bruce Bochy mentioned he has yet to make a decision on if the team will push the rotation up a day, skipping Cain’s start and using Madison Bumgarner on Tuesday instead.
With the Dodgers playing well, and the Giants not, they need to make a change in the rotation, especially since they have the luxury to with Jake Peavy available in the bullpen, and Albert Suarez in Triple-A Sacramento, who replaced Cain when he was sidelined with a hamstring injury. Cain has shown glimpses of being the pitcher the Giants hoped to get when they singed him to a five-year contract, but has failed to pitch winning baseball for most of this season. In his last two starts, Cain has failed to pitch through five innings, and not only has this put the team in an early deficit, it required Bochy to break into his bullpen early and burn the ‘pen.
In Peavy’s relief appearance on Wednesday, he did exactly what Cain couldn’t do: work out of trouble. After giving up two hits to start the inning, Peavy locked in and retired the next three batters to keep the Pirates from expanding their lead. At this point, the Giants have nothing to lose by giving Peavy another shot in the rotation and with just 42 games left, the team can’t continue to bet on which Matt Cain will show up.
