SAN FRANCISCO — Playing in their first game as a second place team since May, the Giants opened Wednesday afternoon’s game against Pittsburgh determined to get back into the win column and avoid a sweep. After building a four-run lead through four innings, it seemed they were well on their way. But the Pirates pounced on Matt Cain for six runs in the fifth and a late rally came up short as San Francisco’s record dropped to 9-21 since the All-Star break.
The Giants are now a full game behind the Dodgers in the division race, and the deficit could jump to 1.5 with an LA win in Philadelphia. For the second start in a row, Matt Cain failed to make it through five innings. But on Wednesday, unlike his last start against Baltimore in which Cain struggled from the first pitch, the Giants saw two different versions of the veteran right-hander.
Cain opened the game retiring the first eight batters before surrendering a hit to the opposing pitcher, Ivan Nova. He then retired the next four batters and looked solid through the first four innings. The offense gave him an early lead to work with and he was using his defense to get quick outs; Cain threw just 52 pitches through four and tallied just 15 balls.
But the start of the fifth saw a different version of Cain, the one that has struggled to return to form since an elbow injury. After attacking the strike zone like he had in the first four innings, Cain couldn’t buy a strike, hitting leadoff hitter John Jaso and following it up with three consecutive walks. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle wasted no time taking advantage of this free rally and pulled his starting pitcher for pinch hitter Matt Joyce, who singled past a diving Joe Panik to cut the Giants’ lead in half.
Cain retired the next two batters, but gave up one more run on a Josh Harrison sacrifice fly that plated Eric Fryer. With two outs, Cain had a chance to limit the damage and end the inning with the score tied, giving the Giants offense a chance to pick him up. Instead, he gave up a long home run to Andrew McCutchen, who has been having a subpar season but has been dynamic in this series in San Francisco. Cain grooved a first-pitch fastball and paid for it, as he watched the ball leave the park before giving the ball to Bruce Bochy and the bullpen.
After working so efficiently to start the game, things turned for the worse quickly for Cain. In the fifth inning, he retired just two batters on 37 pitches and didn’t make the Pirates work hard to get back in the game. They scored their six runs on just two hits and immediately wiped away the momentum the Giants seized with their early runs.
Despite the loss, the Giants had standout days from the trio of Angel Pagan, Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford. Pagan started rallies in both the first and the third inning with a double and single, respectively. In the first inning, after an RBI single by Posey, Crawford lined a shot to left for a double to give the Giants a 2-0 lead. Then in the third, Posey tapped an infield single, beating the shift, which allowed Pagan to move to third. Crawford came through again with a triple, scoring both Pagan and Posey, but these two rallies wouldn’t be enough for the Giants, who looked deflated after the Pirates’ six-run fifth.
The Giants mounted a rally in the bottom of the ninth, loading the bases on a leadoff walk followed by two hits. With Posey up, the Giants looked poised to at least tie the game, but their cleanup hitter ground into a double play that scored San Francisco’s fifth run and Crawford couldn’t pick him up, hitting an easy pop fly to center that McCutchen secured to seal the win.
The Giants next open a four-game series with the Mets at AT&T Park. First pitch on Thursday is at 7:15 pm on KNBR 680.
