PHOENIX — When the losses piled up for Matt Cain in seasons past, the key ingredients usually were walks, home runs and impossibly bad mojo.

This really must be a new year. On a rare night when Cain relapsed in the first two areas, the Giants shined good fortune on him. Pablo Sandoval had four of the club’s season-high 17 hits, including a two-run home run that put San Francisco ahead in the fifth inning, as the Giants rallied for a 9-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
Cain (8-1), once the Charlie Brown of the staff, is finally getting to kick the football. The right-hander is tied for the National League lead in victories with the Rockies’ Jason Marquis, the Mets’ Johan Santana and the Dodgers’ Chad Billingsley.
This was not one of Cain’s better outings, though. He won despite walking five and allowing two home runs in 6°innings. The worst transgression came after the Giants tied it in the third. Cain responded by walking leadoff hitter Justin Upton and giving up a two-run homer to Stephen Drew.
But Sandoval ripped a pitch at the letters off Billy Buckner for a two-run shot, putting the Giants back in front in the fifth inning. Sandoval admired the homer, estimated at 433 feet, and was a bit of a showman as he flipped his bat.
The curtain didn’t fall there, as the Giants added three more runs while running the bases aggressively in the sixth.
Kevin Frandsen’s gambit didn’t work when he singled in the second inning and was thrown out trying for two. But the hit snapped an 0-for-18 streak — and this one was significant because it sprawled over three seasons.
It was Frandsen’s first major league hit since Sept. 30, 2007. The San Jose native, who was limited to one at-bat in 2008 because of a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, had waited 618 days since his previous hit — a home run off the Dodgers’ D.J. Houlton.
Sandoval had his second career four-hit game. Both have come against the Diamondbacks this season. Sandoval had a chance for a fifth hit, but he struck out in the ninth inning.
The last Giant to have a five-hit game? None other than Frandsen, on Sept. 21, 2007, against the Cincinnati Reds.
Frandsen replaced Travis Ishikawa, who was placed on the bereavement list to attend funeral services for his grandfather. But it’s possible that Frandsen’s stay could last beyond this three-game series. Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said he plans to start Frandsen at shortstop Thursday, and he could provide a much-needed spark for a team that has seen middle infielders Edgar Renteria and Emmanuel Burriss in extended funks.
Frandsen had been 0 for 16 in an earlier call-up this season while Juan Uribe was on the bereavement list and Renteria had a strained hamstring. But he made several hard outs in the process. And when he returned to Triple-A Fresno, he hit safely in all nine games while batting .488.
Frandsen sounded determined off the field too, telling the Fresno Bee that he couldn’t let the lack of a major league opportunity get him down.
“The Giants don’t see me as an everyday player, but I see myself differently,” Frandsen was quoted as saying. “At a certain point, you realize a lot more teams need help, no matter how much my heart is set on this team.”
The Giants had their share of breaks, too. Randy Winn should have been out by 10 feet when third-base coach Tim Flannery aggressively sent him on Sandoval’s two-out single in the third inning. But Arizona catcher Miguel Montero couldn’t handle the short hop and Winn scored the tying run.
And when the Giants tried a suicide squeeze in the sixth, Buckner bounced the pitch to Eli Whiteside. Uribe sprinted across the plate and kept running all the way to the dugout, inspiring laughter from his teammates.