San Francisco Giants Morning Minute: Cain’s Rough Day, Pence’s Encouragement
On this edition of the San Francisco Giants Morning Minute, we discuss Cain taking a step back but remaining on track, and an encouraging day for Pence.
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Good morning, San Francisco Giants’ fans, and welcome to another edition of the Giants Morning Minute. On Friday, the Giants dropped game one of a three-game set to the Baltimore Orioles, 5-2. Rookie Dylan Bundy (6-3) earned his third straight win, while Matt Cain (4-7) took the loss to snap his own personal three-game win streak.
The Los Angeles Dodgers also lost on Friday, falling to the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-1. The Giants keep their one-game lead in the National League West. Neither the Giants nor the Dodgers are playing very well right now, and neither team can take advantage of the other’s misfortune. The wild, wild West is more like the ugly, ugly West.
Here’s what went on Friday.
1 – Cain Takes a Step Back, But Is Still On Track
Matt Cain’s two starts prior to Friday were very encouraging. Throwing 10 shutout innings against the Washington Nationals, the first-place team in the NL East, is enough to get everyone’s hopes up just a tad. But facing off against the Orioles’ high-powered offense on Friday, Cain took a step back.
Cain fell back into old, bad habits against Baltimore. While he didn’t miss within the strike zone during his starts against Washington, Cain’s misses were in hittable spots, risky business against a lineup as strong as Baltimore’s. Those Orioles didn’t miss, racking up five runs on 11 hits in four-plus innings against Cain, including a pair of home runs. Even though Cain matched his season-high with seven strikeouts, his swing-and-miss stuff didn’t appear often enough to keep Baltimore off the scoreboard.
This is kind of to be expected for Cain. As the team’s fifth starter, these types of games are going to happen, and the same would be said if it were Jake Peavy or Albert Suarez in the rotation. No one should be expecting Cain to pitch like an ace every night, but he does have the capability to give the team a chance to win more often than not. If he can have a solid start more often than he has these stinkers, he’ll be doing just fine in his role.
But, that remains to be seen. Cain had two poor starts before coming back with two starts that inspired visions that Cain could be a reliable, consistent starter again. But then came this start against Baltimore. It’s a vicious cycle as a starting pitcher, made even more frustrating because the rest of the team isn’t quite clicking either.
2 – Pence’s Encouraging Game
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For about a week or so, Giants’ right fielder Hunter Pence has looked completely lost at the plate. Since August 2nd, Pence had struck out 18 times in 39 plate appearances, and was 1-15 with nine strikeouts in his previous three games. Plate discipline was all but a forgotten concept for Pence, and the team desperately needed a turn-around from Pence to lift up a sleepy offense.
Pence didn’t quite bust out of his slump on Friday, but he did show signs that he was closer to breaking out. He collected a double in four at-bats, but most importantly, he began laying off tough pitches and breaking balls down, showing that his eye at the plate was starting to come around.
In his first at-bat against Bundy, he laid off two close fastballs, pitches he would have chased just a few days ago. He grounded into a fielder’s choice, but stayed within the strike zone. In his second at-bat, he stayed off some breaking balls down, and chopped one down the right field line for a double. His third at-bat against Mychal Givens was his best of the day, as he worked the count full, laying off some tough pitches and fouling balls off the other way. The at-bat ended when he hit a flyball to fairly deep center field, but it was quite the improvement from a guy who struck out nine times in three games.
Pence couldn’t avoid the strikeouts completely, as Britton got him to swing through one to end the ballgame, but even that was a bit of an improvement. He worked the count to 2-2, spitting on some pitches below the strikezone beforehand. Baby steps.
Pence seems to be coming around. Now for the rest of those guys…
3 – Final Note
One guy the offense doesn’t need to worry about right now is Angel Pagan. On Friday, he recorded a hit for the 10th straight game, marking the team’s first double-digit hitting streak of the season. Pagan had a nine-gamer earlier in the season, matching Brandon Belt and his nine-game streak for the team’s best until the current streak.
Next: Giants Morning Minute: Shark's New Pitch, Impressive Youngster
And that will do it for this edition of the San Francisco Giants Morning Minute. Up next, the Giants and Orioles continue their series with game two on Saturday. Giants’ ace Madison Bumgarner takes on Orioles’ potential ace-in-the-making, Kevin Gausman.