Matt Cain Is Becoming the Starter the San Francisco Giants Need
By Keaton Moore
After several tough seasons, Matt Cain is starting to show signs of a rebound that could help the San Francisco Giants keep up in the NL West.
The ups, downs and recent resurgence of Matt Cain hold many San Francisco Giants fans, myself included, in a state of suspense. It is undeniable that Cain has not been the same pitcher he was in 2012, but nonetheless he received the fifth rotation spot for 2017. Following his impressive start against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday, Cain is slowly proving himself to be the missing piece in the Giants rotation.
Struggles, which date back to 2013, continued for Cain during Spring Training with the final rotation spot on the line. He left Arizona with an 0-1 record and a 7.82 ERA, which blew up to 9.58 in mid-March, in six starts.
Meanwhile, Ty Blach and Tyler Beede, Cain’s competition, both made very strong cases for the starting role. Blach posted a 2-1 record and 4.22 ERA, while Beede went 2-0 with a 2.03 ERA. At no point this spring did either of their ERAs rise to where Cain’s finished.
Yet, while many believed one of the youngsters had beaten out the veteran for the job, manager Bruce Bochy dropped plenty of jaws.
"“I thought Matt handled everything well, he was healthy, he threw strikes, and he got better as it went,” Bochy said (per mercurynews.com). “His command of his secondary pitches really came around there at the end, so he deserves to be our fifth starter right now.”"
New year, rediscovered Cain?
As Blach headed to the bullpen and Beede returned to the minor leagues, Bochy’s faith went unrewarded in Cain’s first start of the season. He allowed four runs, including two homers, through 4.1 innings against the San Diego Padres.
However, since then he has allowed two runs and nine hits over his last two starts. He received the win for his five-inning performance against the Arizona Diamondbacks and held the Royals to one run in the Giants’ first trip to Kansas City since the 2014 World Series.
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For Cain’s sake, let’s hope this is the start of a long-lasting rebound because from what we saw last season, the need for his strong contribution is as important as ever.
The Giants finished second to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West by four games. In fact, their season came one loss away from ending without a trip to the postseason, but the Giants moved on to the elimination Wild Card Game and eventually lost to the highly-favored and soon-to-be champion Chicago Cubs in the NLDS.
If it had not been for those four losses, the Giants could have earned a much easier path to defend their even-year magic.
Sure, plenty of the blame can be placed on the disastrous bullpen for those losses, but the Giants made significant improvements during the offseason to fix that problem. Likewise, the Giants upgraded their rotation with Matt Moore to replace the shaky Jake Peavy in the No. 4 spot.
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Especially with the impressive starts of the Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, if the Giants are looking to contend this postseason, they will need Cain to rediscover his ace-like form. As the season progresses, we will see if Cain can deliver, but thus far he is showing encouraging signs.