Harden defeats Cain, Giants

S.F. pitcher finishes with 11 strikeouts, but Oakland wins

Laurence Miedema - MercuryNews

The most anticipated pitching matchup of the Bay Bridge Series exceeded expectations Saturday night.

The A's Rich Harden and the Giants' Matt Cain put on an impressive power-pitching show, combining for 20 strikeouts and big numbers on the scoreboard radar gun at AT&T Park.

Ultimately, the A's emerged with a 4-0 victory. But the dominating performances by the hard-throwing starters, who benefited early from the shadows of a twilight start, had the sold-out crowd buzzing and hitters mumbling to themselves.

"It's tough enough to see in that situation when you're not facing a guy like him," Giants center fielder Aaron Rowand said of Harden. "Obviously, it went both ways. Cainer was throwing good, too."

Harden (4-0) allowed one hit in six innings and matched a season high with nine strikeouts for the second straight start. The oft-injured right-hander, who spent most of April on the disabled list because of a strained right shoulder, is healthy and on a roll and the A's want to keep it that way.

Harden had retired 15 of 17 batters when he was removed for a pinch hitter in the seventh inning after throwing 97 pitches. Harden said he "wasn't 100 percent" after overthrowing late in his previous start against the Los Angeles Angels, and Manager Bob Geren said the A's wanted to "protect" the right-hander and limit him to 100 pitches against the Giants.

"We didn't want to push it too far," Geren said. "He's having a great year for us, and we want it to remain that way for us. . . . But the way Rich was throwing, you're tempted to leave him out there."

Harden, who is 3-0 with a 2.09 ERA in his past six starts and has struck out 47 in 38 2/3 innings during that stretch, supports the A's cautious approach.

"That's fine," Harden said. "I'd like to get my pitch count up a little more, but we have some time to do that."

Cain (3-4) wasn't quite as dominant as Harden, but he probably deserved better.

The Giants right hander had allowed two runs and struck out a season-high 11 when he was relieved in the eighth after a leadoff single by Mark Ellis. Ellis scored later on a wild pitch by reliever Jack Taschner.

"His fastball seemed like it had late life," Geren said of Cain. "The radar gun said 94, 95, but it seemed like higher velocity."

The A's managed just six hits off Cain, but they were timely.

Ryan Sweeney blooped a single to left with one out in the first inning and then scored from first base when Jack Cust doubled down the right-field line.

Cain regrouped, recording seven consecutive outs with strikeouts at one point and not allowing another runner past first base until the seventh.

The end to the run proved costly for the Giants. With one out in the seventh, A's catcher Kurt Suzuki hit a liner to center field. Rowand, a Gold Glove winner, dived but the ball landed a few feet in front of him and skipped past to the center-field wall for a triple. One batter later, Daric Barton's sacrifice fly to right gave the A's a 2-0 lead.

"I thought it was going to hang up a little longer than it did; I was just trying to make a play," Rowand said. "I play aggressive. That's what I'm out there to do. . . . If I had to do it over, I'd try to catch it again."

Armed with a lead before he took the mound, Harden didn't provide the Giants many opportunities to come back and, along with four relievers, extended the A's pitching staff's scoreless streak in this series to 16 innings.

"With a guy like Cain pitching, you know you aren't going to get a lot of runs off him," Harden said. "It definitely helps to kind of focus and push a little bit."

Cain said he also enjoyed the high-wattage matchup.

"It's always fun," Cain said. "I love watching Rich throw when we get to see him on TV and . . . he's got unbelievable stuff. We knew it was going to be a tough game and a lot of short innings. We were going to have to capitalize and we couldn't get it done."

Harden allowed a two-out single to Randy Winn in the first inning and then retired 14 of the next 15 batters until Fred Lewis drew a walk with one out in the sixth inning.

"The ball looked like it was going to be in the (strike) zone, and then it faded away," Lewis said.

Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said, "That was some of the best stuff we have seen this year."

Once Harden was out of the way, the Giants had several chances to break through but were thwarted each time.