MILWAUKEE — Everyone with a press pass is asking Matt Cain to explain his 9-1 record after a Charlie Brown past.

Cain, who starts for the Giants on Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers, usually shrugs and credits the difference to maturity, focus — and improved run support, of course.
But there is another big difference in Cain’s starts this season. It’s the guy who stands directly behind him in the center-field grass.
“Aaron Rowand has been unbelievable,” Cain said. “He’s probably taken away a half-dozen doubles and triples. “. . . No, make that a dozen.
“Well, at least 10.”
Cain is an extreme flyball pitcher, so you can imagine he is a fan of strong outfield defense. And the Giants appear to be much improved out yonder in the pastures, especially now that Andres Torres and Nate Schierholtz have earned more innings.
The biggest difference is in the middle with Rowand, who arrived in San Francisco last season as a $60 million free agent and two-time Gold Glove Award winner. His defense soon earned a different reputation, though. Scouts were alarmed at his lack of range. He often did Top Gun flybys of the cutoff man, allowing trail runners to take an extra base. Some advanced defensive metrics ranked Rowand among the worst center fielders in the league.
The coaching staff took note. One of the reasons the Giants carried Torres on their opening-day roster this spring is that they wanted to have a late-inning replacement in case Rowand’s decline hastened.
Instead, Rowand has reestablished himself as one of the game’s better center fielders. He is better acquainted with AT&T Park. But mostly, he isn’t limited by a broken rib that he sustained in last season’s opening week, when he dived for a ball at Dodger Stadium.
“First of all, there are no excuses for bad play, for missing your cutoff man,” Rowand said. “All in all, I feel pretty good this year — a lot better than last year. Yeah, the broken rib put a damper on my ability to do some things. Me, I love to take hits away from people, but I felt I was a little handcuffed in the first half last year. It was frustrating, but thank God I haven’t had any of those issues this season.”
In Cain’s start against the Texas Rangers last week, Rowand charged and caught a difficult, spinning line drive from Michael Young. A few innings later, Rowand glided to the warning track in left-center to take extra bases away from Brandon Boggs.
“When Row goes back on a ball, he looks so much more fluid,” Cain said. “Those plays add up. They save you runs and they also save you pitches.
“And he’s doing the same thing for the other (pitchers), too.”
Nobody has a better vantage point on Rowand’s glovework than Randy Winn, who has manned both corner outfield spots.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a night-and-day situation, but it definitely looks like he’s running better,” Winn said. “I know from right field, I’ve seen a few balls off the bat to left-center I thought would be a double. Not only is he getting to them, but he’s getting to them easily. That’s what good center fielders do. They might run a long way to make a catch, but it seems like they’re cruising.”
Perhaps that’s why Rowand’s improvement has seemed so subtle. But the results haven’t been.
“He’s getting great jumps,” Winn said. “If you don’t get a good jump in our park, it’s very easy for an out to turn into a triple.”
The same is true at San Diego’s Petco Park and Colorado’s Coors Field.
Rowand only has two assists, but his throws to bases appear stronger and much more accurate. Aside from an in-between play Tuesday at Oakland, he is having fewer “geeked-up” moments and is hitting the cutoff man with greater frequency.
Rowand maintains his arm strength by playing long toss, something the broken rib prevented him from doing last season. Now he’s back on the field early with Schierholtz, airing it out every day.
He might not win another Gold Glove, but he’s playing the field closer to what Giants management envisioned when they handed him one of the city’s prime pieces of real estate.
“I take more pride in my defense than any other part of the game,” Rowand said. “There’s nothing better than to have your pitcher know that when the ball goes up in the air, I’m going to go get it.”