On Tuesday, San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain continued his path to returning to the big league rotation, this time by pitching in a Triple-A game against the Chicago Cubs’ affiliate.
The Giants’ right-hander pitched five innings, throwing 75 pitches, and 50 strikes, when all was said and done. Cain gave up six hits, as well as a hit-by-pitch, leading to two unearned runs. He struck out four opponents, mostly using a fastball sitting between 90 and 91 miles per hour, but mixing in all of his pitches. Alex Pavlovic, the Giants’ Insider for Comcast Sports Net Bay Area, said that Cain “looked sharp”.
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Cain is on the path to recovery following elbow surgery last August, and ankle surgery last September.
Cain made his Spring Training debut on March 9th, and was very good against the Giants’ archrivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers. In two innings, he was perfect, retiring all six batters he faced on just 20 pitches. He wasn’t facing the Dodgers’ B-team either. They were trotting out a lineup that will look similar to the lineup they’ll use on opening day.
Cain’s follow-up start wasn’t so nice, as he gave up six hits and four runs, both earned, in 1.2 innings. Despite the results, Cain was encouraged, as he told Carl Steward from the San Jose Mercury News.
"I got to pretty much work every scenario. I’ve just got to make better pitches in bigger situations. I didn’t do my job. I didn’t make good locations. But I felt all right."
Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy was also encouraged by Cain’s outing, as the focus in Spring Training isn’t on the results, but on the mechanics, as he also told Steward in his typical Bochy drawl.
"Shoot, I like what I saw, to be honest. He’s on his way, he looks good, I like his delivery. Again, we’re not worried about results right now. The key is that he’s healthy, and we’ve got him where we want him.”"
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Cain’s third start also came at minor league camp, where innings can be molded to the pitcher. If the pitcher is a rehabbing major leaguer, he can throw 15 pitches per inning, then have the inning stopped in order to get used to getting up and down throughout a game, which is exactly what Cain did.
In his third start, Cain threw 51 pitches over 3.1 innings, and gave up one run on two hits and a hit batsmen. He also struck out six.
After Tuesday’s game, Cain acknowledged to Andrew Baggarly that he has experienced some discomfort in his elbow, but according to what trainers have told him, that is normal, and to be expected from his rehab process. Baggarly went in to further detail here.
"To be clear, Cain said he hasn’t encountered any setbacks in his rehab from surgery last August to remove bone chips that had been swimming around like thorns for years in his right elbow. Trainers told him to expect some discomfort because he had thrown with a limited range of motion for a long, long time. Now that he can get more extension, it’ll take time to recondition his arm so it can bounce back as it once did."
In Tuesday’s minor league camp game, Angel Pagan, who has been dealing with stiffness in his back, was also a participant. He led off, but was hitless in his first two at-bats. In his second appearance, he was robbed by a sliding catch by the center fielder on a ball he hit very well in the left-center field gap. In his third at-bat, Pagan singled, and eventually scored.
Cain, and Pagan as well, are key pieces to the Giants trying to break the odd-year curse, and make some of the even year magic carry over into 2015. Both of them being on the field is a very good sign for the Giants.