Matt Cain fell victim to a familiar combination of no run support and slow start with high pitch counts in the early innings as the Cardinals salvaged one win in the 3 game weekend series against the Giants. Brad Penny turned in a familiar performance too, pitching his heater to contact, giving up hits but not allowing walks or HR's. The Difference in the game, though was Albert Pujols as the Giants really have nothing comparable in their lineup, and that's not a knock on Panda. Key lines:
Pablo Sandoval- 3 for 4. BA= .357. Sandoval's efforts went for naught as the two players in front of him, Velez and Renteria went a combined 0 for 8 while the 3 behind him, Molina, DeRosa and Ishikawa went a combined 1 for 12.
Nate Schierholtz- 2 for 4. BA= .344. Yesterday, I advocated for Nate to stay in the 8 hole, but with Aubrey Huff getting the day off, I'm not sure why you would hit a guy who has been playing every day with a .300+ BA behind an guy who hasn't played in a week. Given the futility at the top of the Giants order, it might be time to move Nate up to either leadoff or #2 at least until Rowand gets back.
Matt Cain- 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.80. Cainer hung tough, but made the mistake early and threw 98 pitches in 5 IP, both familiar routines for him. Oh, and no run support for the 102'nd time in his career, or something like that.
Runzler, Mota, Affeldt, Medders- 1 IP, 0 R, each. Give the bullpen credit for keeping the Giants in the game until the end.
Tomorrow is Timmy's main competition for Cy Young, Roy Halladay, going against Jon Sanchez.
Around the League: The Padres finally lost a game, 5-4 to Cincinnati. Their record is 11-7 to the Giants 10-8. The Dodgers got a good game from Chad Billingsley, but their vaunted lineup failed to support him in a 1-0 loss to the Nats. LA's record drops to 8-10. Colorado topped Florida 8-4 to move above .500 at 10-9. Arizona outhit the Phils 8-6 and are tied with the Dodgers at 8-10. Is anyone getting the feeling that a record with wins in the high 80's just might take the division this year?
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matt cain's too good a pitcher to have a record of 0-1, rather frustrating...
ReplyDeletenot sure is 3.80 era is representative either, but close to his career era of 3.54 so he may be pitching close to his "usual" - a few more runs and he'd have a lot more wins!!!