So many of Matt Cain’s finest moments came through sheer stubbornness.
He’s the 20-year-old rookie who kept firing fastballs at Todd Helton in his major league debut. He’s the unblinking staff veteran who started three postseason clinchers in 2012. He’s the pitcher whose heart was beating out of his chest while finishing off a perfect game, though you never knew it to watch.
Cain received a reminder of that perfect night on Tuesday, when the Toronto Blue Jays countered with J.A. Happ - the same pitcher whom Cain opposed when he set down all 27 Houston Astros he faced.
Cain did not get the better of Happ in the San Francisco Giants’ 4-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. He did not snap his winless streak, which reached 14 starts and dates back to July of last season.
But for just the third time in that run, Cain threw a quality start - and he soared past those minimum standards. He completed eight innings for the first time in three seasons, yielded only a home run and a sacrifice fly to Troy Tulowitzki, struck out seven, did not walk a batter, rewarded the faith of management and might have restored a little with a doubt-stricken fan base, too.
Until Cain and Jake Peavy are able to rip off a run of quality starts, there will continue to be worries about the back end of the Giants rotation. But another moon is rising to eclipse those concerns. The Giants offense managed no runs and the barest of rallies against Happ, whose minimalist precision was cut from Greg Maddux’s cloth. In their last four games, the Giants have scored a total of one run against opposing starters.
They didn’t even move a runner into scoring position until the sixth inning. Through seven innings, Happ had faced 23 batters and gone to a two-ball count just five times.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy has every reason to remain confident in his talented lineup, which should be a team strength most of the season.
But his tactics had a whiff of desperation in the third inning, when Kelby Tomlinson reached on a bunt single and Cain pulled back his bunt attempt to take a swing. Cain missed, and Tomlinson was out at second base.
The Giants continue to hit into bad luck, too. Denard Span walked to start the fourth inning but had to freeze halfway as left fielder Michael Saunders pursued a sinking line drive off Joe Panik’s bat. The ball flopped out of Saunders’ glove, but he came up throwing to second base and nipped Span for a force out.
Buster Posey followed by grounding into a double play. And when the Giants loaded the bases against closer Roberto Osuna in the ninth, Jarrett Parker couldn’t give the sellout crowd the grandest of thrills. He struck out on three pitches, chasing the last one as it skipped in the dirt.
The result was one more of those unsupported hard-luck losses that Cain absorbed so often earlier in his career.
Cain’s fastball was crisp and he appeared to hit Posey’s target most of the night against a lineup with plenty of power threats. But he missed his spot in the second inning to an old foe.
From his days with the Colorado Rockies till now, Tulowitzki has faced Cain 75 times in his career, more than any other pitcher. He entered as a .328 hitter with five home runs against him.
Tulowitzki’s sixth home run came on a 2-1 fastball over the plate, and Ryan Goins hit a double to the wall. But Cain struck out Happ to end the inning, and then faced the minimum over the next four frames - including the fifth, in which opponents had been 20 for 32 with 17 runs against him.
Saunders hit a one-out triple that Hunter Pence couldn’t cut off in the seventh, and scored when Span gloved Tulowitzki’s fly out and unleashed a throw that bounced off the mound.
Span saved Cain a run in the eighth, though, when he timed his jump at the wall to take an extra-base hit away from Josh Donaldson.
Tulowitzki didn’t only pick on Cain. His double was at the heart of the Blue Jays’ two-run ninth against Derek Law.