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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, July 25, 2009

MLB: Cain proves adept in pennant push as Giants win


By Andrew Baggarly
San Jose Mercury News

DENVER — San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain and the Colorado Rockies have some history together.

Cain’s major league debut came against Colorado in 2005, when he was 20, and featured a memorable, 14-pitch tussle with Todd Helton in which the young right-hander prevailed. In ensuing years, Cain dominated Brad Hawpe (.090), scratched his head after facing Ryan Spilborghs (.444) and learned the wiles of pitching at mile-high altitude. He still lists Helton as the hitter he most respects.
But when Cain stepped on the mound Friday night at Coors Field, he wasn’t pitching for a team 20 games below .500 or for fourth place in the division or to chart his personal growth.
For the first time, Cain is pitching in a pennant race. And he’s proving adept at it.
Cain muzzled the league’s hottest team and their fans, holding the Rockies to three hits in seven innings as the Giants earned a crucial 3-1 victory.
Now a full-fledged Cy Young Award candidate, Cain (12-2) joined Colorado’s Jason Marquis as the only 12-game winners in the major leagues. Fred Lewis scored twice while finishing a home run short of another Coors Field cycle, and Nate Schierholtz broke a team-wide eight-game home run drought as the Giants drew even with the Rockies atop the National League wild-card standings.
“They were loud and I felt it, too,” said Cain, who shushed the ballpark when he struck out Hawpe with two runners in scoring position to end the sixth inning. “That’s a pretty good feeling. Obviously, they’re rooting against us, but it was fun to have that kind of excitement in the stadium. You make it work for you.”
On the road?
“Why not?” Cain said. “You’re trying to quiet ’em down. You feel you can do something to your advantage.”
Schierholtz’s home run was the Giants’ first since July 12, snapping a dry spell of 75 innings. (Or 284 at-bats, if you like.) Lewis hit an infield single in the first, doubled in the fourth, tripled in the sixth and walked in his only chance at the cycle. He completed one here on Mother’s Day in 2007.
“I was disappointed he wouldn’t throw me a strike,” Lewis said of left-hander Franklin Morales. “All I can say is I’m happy I got a chance to play.”
The Giants have played crisply behind Cain all season. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval made two diving stops and strong throws to retire the speedy Dexter Fowler. Catcher Bengie Molina nabbed a runner trying to steal. And Jeremy Affeldt threw his 27th consecutive scoreless inning.
Cain didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning and responded when the Rockies finally applied pressure to him. He faced his biggest test in the sixth, after Spilborghs and Garrett Atkins sandwiched two-out doubles around a walk to Helton.
With the tying runs in scoring position, Cain’s back-door slider froze Hawpe.
“He’s got his fastball back in the mid-90s and he’s consistently throwing strikes with all his pitches,” said closer Brian Wilson, who put the tying runs on base in the ninth before securing his league-leading 25th save on Troy Tulowitzki’s double-play grounder. “It’s made a big difference now that he’s got that good change-up going. And today, his slider had a huge effect. They had to take it for strikes. You do that, the fastball gets a little faster.”
Despite a hot night with 15 percent humidity, conditions that make for slick baseballs and flat curves, Cain had enough left to strike out two batters in a perfect seventh inning.
Leading off the eighth, Bruce Bochy waited until the Rockies announced pinch hitter Carlos Gonzalez before he summoned Affeldt. Cain handed over the baseball, and in a role reversal, he swatted his manager on the behind as he walked to the dugout.