Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle(SFGate)
Matt Cain has lost enough games in his emerging major-league career, 34 to be precise, that he surely does not want to lose the same game twice. Given a second chance Friday night after he fell behind 4-0 early, Cain pitched a riveting and dominating game.
He was rewarded when the offense delivered its biggest comeback of the season. The Giants caught the Royals in the fifth inning and shot past them with a four-run sixth, the big hit a three-run Ray Durham double.
With his team's 9-4 victory, Cain matched his season best by completing eight innings and improved to 4-5 for the season with his second victory in his last three starts. He also broke his interleague losing streak at five.
"He should feel good about where he's at," manager Bruce Bochy said of Cain. "He looks so confident right now. Even in the first inning, when he gave up three runs, he didn't lose his composure. He kept grinding it."
Cain believed he had no choice.
"It's just one inning," he said. "Obviously they got a big crooked number, but there's a whole lot of game left. If you can't live with yourself for giving up runs early, especially in one inning, I don't know how you can pitch."
The Royals, coming off an uplifting three-game sweep in St. Louis, learned exactly how Cain can pitch after they took a 4-0 lead with an unearned run in the third inning.
Starting with Mike Aviles' sacrifice fly, Cain retired 15 of 16 batters, including six of his eight strikeouts. The only Royal who reached was Joey Gathright, who bunted for a hit in the fifth inning before being thrown out trying to steal by Bengie Molina.
Over his final five innings Friday, Cain relied almost exclusively on his fastball and looked like the pitcher who took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Angels in 2006, the last interleague game he had won.
In fact, he has been "Matt Cain" over his last three starts, since he decided that walks were killing him and he needed to challenge hitters. He has one walk in each of his last three starts after averaging three over his first 13 starts.
"I feel I've been a little up and down," he said. "I feel a lot more comfortable recently. I think I need to keep that good mind-set going, and if they beat me, they beat me. It's crushing when you walk a guy and he ends up scoring."
The Royals beat Cain in the first inning when he left pitches up. Jose Guillen ripped a two-run double and Mark Grudzielanek an RBI single. When he issued his only walk, to David DeJesus leading off the third, the Royals indeed converted it into a run, this one unearned.
The Giants clawed back to tie the game 4-4 and chase starter Luke Hochevar in the fifth inning. Then, they stormed ahead 7-4 in the sixth when Durham turned on a 96-mph fastball from Carlos Rosa and ripped it into the right-field corner for his three-run double and his third hit.
The pitch was high, hard and inside.
"Not many people keep that ball fair," Durham said. "I really can't explain it. I'm not even going to try."
Durham sprained his right ankle turning on the pitch and left the game after he scored on a Randy Winn double. After the game, his ankle still was sore.
Giants hitters did a lot of little things well. They scored eight of their nine runs with two outs. Jose Castillo started the go-ahead rally in the sixth with an infield hit, sliding into first base belly first. Omar Vizquel and Fred Lewis patiently accepted walks to load the bases for Durham.
Aaron Rowand had two doubles and Molina the game-tying single. Molina had quite a turnaround. He hit into double plays in his first two at-bats and made a wild throw that led to the fourth run against Cain, but rebounded with his big hit and the throw that nailed Gathright.
"You've got to play nine innings," Bochy said, "and Bengie did."
The Giants sealed their night with a pretty double play in the ninth. With Tyler Walker pitching, Guillen hit a grounder up the middle. Vizquel fielded it, flipped to Emmanuel Burriss, who caught the ball barehanded, Vizquel-style, and threw to first.
"I've been blessed in my career to play with phenomenal fielders," Walker said. "J.T. Snow was one. Omar is another. You marvel at how they make hard plays like that look so easy."
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