Matt Cain’s Final Start Was A Vintage Ending To A Storied Career

Matt Cain left it all out on the mound in his finale — and left the game to an emotional farewell.

Matt Cain looked perplexed when Bruce Bochy strolled to the mound during the fifth inning of yesterday’s game — his final appearance as a big leaguer. He didn’t want to let go of the baseball, holding it resolutely in his hand as his manager spoke to him.

Three batters later, he walked toward the dugout where his teammates were waiting. The hugs and handshakes went on for five minutes, the longest being a rib-cracking embrace from Madison Bumgarner.

When it was over, he came back out onto the field for one last curtain call, because one wouldn’t be enough. Maybe not even a hundred.

Matt Cain finally called it quits on Saturday.

It’s strange to put those words in the same sentence, because Matt Cain never quit.

It’s what endeared him to Giants fans during the dark days that proceeded the Barry Bonds era. Cain was the lone building block on a team at the beginning of a freefall — one that would last four years and lead to a franchise-altering exodus.

As the losses piled up and green patches of empty seats were seen for the first time at Pac Bell Park, it was a 20-year-old throwing complete-game shutouts that hinted at a better future.

That future would include three All-Star appearances, three world championships and one perfect game.

More from Golden Gate Sports

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
• Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve

Then came the five-year winter. There weren’t any wights, wargs, or Night Kings though — it was merely humans wielding blunt, wooden  instruments that were too much for Cain to overcome.

His once impeccable command inexplicably became erratic, his fastball slowed down and his slider stopped completely.

Teams used to groan whenever they had to play the Giants on Cain’s next scheduled start. This year, it became a race to the bat racks whenever he toed the slab.

The avalanche never stopped. Cain finishes this season 3-11 with a 5.43 ERA and a .310 opposing batting average. That just didn’t seem possible for someone who rarely faltered during his first eight years in the big leagues. Someone who would throw 160 pitches in a game and acted like it tickled afterwards.

Cain was the kind of pitcher that had the potential to pitch into his forties — which makes his rapid decline so baffling. To say the least.

But his struggles don’t come close to outweighing his successes. During a three-year stretch from 2009 to 2011, he and Tim Lincecum formed the best 1-2 battery in baseball, single-handedly carrying the Giants back to respectability and inevitably bringing the first World Series title to San Francisco.

He was ridiculous during the 2010 postseason, pitching over 21 innings without allowing a single earned run. He heard the words all throughout his career: Cain is Able. Now, he had exceeded them.

After following up his legendary playoff performance with another outstanding season, the Giants rewarded Cain with what was then the biggest contract ever given to a starting pitcher. It was a decision that never paid off, but one that the Giants still don’t regret to this day.

And why should they? Cain had already made his bones with the team, was still in his prime years and never showed any signs of slowing down. He’s owed $20 million for his efforts this season. Any free-agent pitcher with the same numbers Cain put up in 2011 would be making more.

Immediately after signing his new deal, Cain had arguably the best year of any starting pitcher in a Giants uniform. He set career highs in wins, ERA, and strikeouts-to-walk ratio. He started and won the All-Star Game, and was on the mound for the clinching game of every series during the 2012 title run.

San Francisco Giants

And that’s just the boring stuff. After building a collection of one-hit pitching gems throughout his career, Cain finally achieved perfection with an all-time great performance in which he struck out 14 Astros.

It’s one thing to pitch a perfect game. It’s another to pitch the best perfect game.

Elite pitchers like Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer may have a couple of Cy Young‘s, but Cain has a shinier no-hitter, and he won a World Series to go with it.

The scary thing is, he could have been even better. He played with bone chips floating around in his arm for eight years. By the time he had them removed, the damage was irreparable. Just as Tim Lincecum’s harpoon-like windup malfunctioned after constant use, Cain’s mythical limb had been rendered forever powerless.

He’s retiring because he knows his days as a pitcher are over. There’s nothing left in that arm — not even enough to attempt a comeback as a reliever, which would be pointless anyway. Cain never envisioned a future for himself as anything but a starter, and the thought of playing for another team pained him.

"“It’s special to me to be able to wear one uniform,” he said after the game, his voice shaking and his eyes tearing up. “To know that I’ll always be a Giant. I don’t want to be anybody else.”"

The Bay Area is where he made his home. Where he became a 49ers fan and supported progressive causes like gay marriage. If it was going to end, it had to be on the same mound where he found the highest glories of the game.

While Cain’s successes defined him as a player, it was his failures that defined him as an individual. He never threw his teammates under the bus once as he turned out one brilliant performance after another, only to watch the aging lineup behind him play at their worst every time.

He started 32 games in 2007 and lost 16 of them. So it was almost karmic justice that the Giants scored 10 runs on the night of his perfect game, with Gregor Blanco adding a history-saving catch.

In his final start, the offense scored two runs and the bullpen failed to protect the lead he gave them. Like many legends before him, it was an ending that fit the script. Ted Williams homered. Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless inning. Matt Cain got Cained.

The championship rebuild started with him, and it’s possible his retirement signals the beginning of a new era. With the Giants likely getting the first overall pick in next year’s draft, and several talented players still on the roster, hope doesn’t seem as far away as it did in 2005.

But no matter who the Giants draft or who they sign or who they trade for, it’s almost unforeseeable that they’ll get what Matt Cain gave them.

His absolute best every start. And that was pretty damn good — sometimes resulting in perfection.