The Quiet Ace

Shane Victorino stood at the plate, the count 3-1.  Matt Cain prepared himself to deliver the pitch.  It was to be his 118th of the day and though he refused to acknowledge it, fatigue had probably begun to set in for him, as he had hit Ibanez with a pitch and walked Gload on 7 pitches before facing Victorino.  He went in motion and delivered - a fastball on the inside part of the strike zone, clocked in at 90mph.  Victorino swung - foul ball.  3-2.  Cain readied himself again, knowing this would likely be his last batter of the afternoon.  It was the 7th inning and the Giants were hanging on to a 3-0 lead, having scratched out 3 runs off the 2008 World Series and NLCS MVP Cole Hamels.  The bullpen was ready to take over and send the Giants to a 2-1 series lead, but Cain was not finished yet.  One more pitch.  From the stretch, he unloaded again - this time a fastball on the outer half of the strike zone, and Victorino swung.  Ground ball to second, fielded by Sanchez, a throw to Huff - inning over.

Another 7 scoreless innings in the books.  Not as headline grabbing as Lincecum's 14 strikeout performance, but effective and clutch nonetheless.  And in Game 2 of the World Series, Cain would do the same - a clutch, effective 7 and 2/3 scoreless innings, leaving the bullpen with a small but more-than-viable lead.  Though he gave up his first extra base hit of the postseason, he held the Rangers to just 4 hits and 2 walks, striking out two along the way, and continued his postseason dominance.  Cain has yet to allow an earned run this postseason , delivering three high-quality ace-quality starts and has helped put the Giants in a favorable position in the NLCS and now the World Series.

Yet, half of baseball fans in New York probably have no idea who Matt Cain is.  Isn't it all about Lincecum?  Or that beard man?  Or that new rookie Buster Posey?  Or that Cody Ross fellow?  Well, let me tell you who Matt Cain is.  He has logged 200+ innings 4 consecutive seasons, after making his major league debut in 2005 and contributing 190+ innings in 2006.  He has posted a strong 3.45 ERA over 5+ seasons with the Giants, not including his latest postseason starts, and has been a king of consistency.

In 2007, when Barry Zito flopped and failed to deliver on his big contract, Matt Cain quietly stepped in and anchored the beginnings of what would later become one of the best starting rotations in the league.  And when Lincecum emerged and captivated the baseball world in 2008 and 2009, Cain took a backseat in the spotlight, but his pitching never went away.  He continued to give the Giants high-quality start after high-quality start, giving the Giants a powerful 1-2 punch atop their rotation.

And in 2010, when Lincecum appeared to have lost some of his magic touch, Cain stepped up his game once again - though perhaps it was not that Cain had suddenly gotten all that much better,but that his ace-like consistency had suddenly become that much more important in the absence of another ace.

He has been a workhorse ever since his arrival to the big leagues and he led the Giants this year in innings pitched with 223.1, a career high for him.  Though homeruns and control have been problems, Cain has battled and worked to limit them.  His changeup has blossomed into a deadly weapon that complements his high fastballs.  A fly ball pitcher, Cain has found a way to make full use of AT&T park, as its spacious grounds act as a deathbed for most balls popped up in the air (see: Kinsler's double).

And on the nation's biggest stage, Cain has simply been brilliant.  Only four other pitchers can boast the feat of having gone 20 or more consecutive innings without allowing an earned run (Matthewson with 27 in 1905, Hoyt with 27 in 1921, Kenny Rogers with 23 in 2006, and Carl Hubbell with 20 in 1933) - three current Hall of Famers, and one potential Hall of Famer to be.  And yet, despite having the numbers to warrant conversation in the context of other pitching greats - there continues to be a feel that many do not consider Matt Cain to be an elite level pitcher.  Most fans continue to see Cain as a second string pitcher behind Lincecum; they don't consider Cain on equal footing with pitchers like Halladay, Hernandez, or CC Sabathia.

I'll admit - I, too, have been guilty of this.  And why not?  Lincecum has been nothing short of remarkable and deserves every bit of attention he gets.  But that does not mean we should ignore what Cain has done.  Actually younger than Lincecum, Cain has been through more with the Giants than any other current Giants player.  He is currently the longest tenured Giant on the team, having experienced both the end of the Bonds era and the emergence of the incredible and torturous pitching-dominated culture that lives in San Francisco today.  A consistent victim of low run support, he neither complained nor whined.  He simply kept at it and quietly put together ace-like season after ace-like season.  He pitched like an ace when all eyes were on the dazzling Tim Lincecum or the flops of Barry Zito.  And he pitched like an ace when it mattered most - in the playoffs, shutting down opponents at a rate that legends tell of.  People have spoken endlessly about Cliff Lee's 7-0 playoff run, but perhaps it is time to discuss the emergence of a new legend, one that quietly excelled in the background.

If/when the Giants win the World Series this year, the MVP award might well go to Freddy Sanchez or Edgar Renteria, but if we really wanted to give an MVP award, one that truly told the story of the past 5 seasons, there is no doubt that Matt Cain would win it.

Redefining Convention: the 2010 San Francisco Giants

There are not enough words in the English dictionary to describe the paradox that is the San Francisco Giants.  (While we're at it, let's cross out "Convention" from the title of this article and replace it with "everything".)  

An offensively challenged team kept alive by incredible and timely pitching, the Giants knocked off the Phillies in Game 6 of the NLCS last night in their usual fashion.  NLCS Game 6 featured neither dominance nor power, but grit and stinginess. The Giants stranded 11 baserunners, had just one hit in 8 tries with runners in scoring position, grounded into two rally-killing double plays, and gave the Phillies numerous opportunities to score.  Starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez lasted just two innings and left the third inning after hitting Utley in the back to put two runners on with nobody out and the Giants were forced to use their bullpen for 7 innings that night.

By no means should the Giants have won, but here's the thing - they did.  And they've been doing this all season.  After falling in a 2-0 deficit, almost an insurmountable obstacle with the Giants' anemic offense, the Giants "rallied" in the 3rd.  Pitcher Jonathan Sanchez led off the inning with a single, Torres hit a fly ball to the center field wall that Victorino could not handle, and a sacrifice bunt by Freddy Sanchez put runners at 2nd and 3rd with one out.  Up came #3 hitter Aubrey Huff, who singled up the middle to score Sanchez.  Torres was thrown out at the plate thanks to a fortuitous bounce on the pitcher's mound on Victorino's throw and Huff moved up to 2nd on the play.  Buster Posey followed up this with a slow roller along the 3rd base line and after Polanco's throwing error, Huff scored the tying run.  2-2.  No big hits, no homeruns - not even an extra base hit.  Just more scratching and clawing and grinding (and a bit of help from lady luck and the Phillies defense).  Typical Giants baseball.

From that point on, they stranded runner after runner after runner, squandered opportunity after opportunity, and seemed destined to fall to the powerful Phillies offense.  But the pitching staff would not have any of that.  They countered the 11 Giants runners stranded by stranding 11 Phillies baserunners themselves.  A starter turned reliever, Madison Bumgarner worked his way into trouble in the 5th and 6th innings, and with his inexperience, both as a reliever and as a major leaguer in general, the Phillies seemed poised to break loose.  But just as the Giants pitching staff has done all year, he would work out of trouble, stranding the bases loaded in the 5th and a runner at 3rd with one out in the 6th.

And then came in the 8th inning.  Phillies reliever Ryan Madson was in his second inning of work and had dominated the Giants the entire series - having struck out the heart of the Giants lineup in order in the 8th inning of Game 5.  And after two quick outs, the batter was Juan Uribe.  Though he had his moments, he had struggled mightily in the postseason (then again, so has the entire Giants offense minus Cody Ross) and was battling an injury.  But none of that mattered - Uribe took the first pitch he saw and drove it to right field for a homerun - just barely over the wall, but a homerun nonetheless.  And just like that the Giants were on top 3-2.


But the night was far from over.  After escaping Lincecum's jam in the 8th inning, Wilson, with two outs in the ninth, walked Utley, putting the go-ahead run on base and pushing the tying run to second base with Ryan Howard, the Phillies big slugger, coming to bat.  He quickly worked the count 3-2 (the usual Wilson count), but struck out Howard looking with a backdoor breaking ball to send the Giants to the World Series.  Howard could not believe it - he stood there, hands on his hips, in disappointment at the strike call and the realization that his team, heavily favored by any standard, had just lost to a team featuring Cody Ross as their best hitter, a team that actually scored less runs total than the Phillies in the series.


The Phillies had stranded 11 runners on the night and were just 7 for 45 (.156) with runners in scoring position during the series.  They can blame themselves all they want - for their lack of clutch hitting and untimeliness, but the fact of the matter is, the Giants were simply better.  There may not be any statistics or expert analysis that could have predicted or justified this - save for the 4 tallies in the win column - but the Giants were better.  The Giants know that and the Giants faithful know that.  Their offense dwarfed in comparison to the Phillies and their starting pitching seemed to have finally met their match against the Phillies' experienced "H2O", but the Giants found a way to be the better team, and they did so four times before the Phillies could.


But this is just the tip of the iceberg; I could go on for days about how the Giants have grinded their way through the season in unconventional fashion.  Their best hitter in the postseason was added to the team in late August not as an upgrade but as a surefire way to keep him away from the Padres.  The Giants won the NL West only thanks to an epic Padres collapse that featured a 10 game losing streak while atop the division.  Their cleanup hitter is a rookie catcher that took over the catching duties midseason.  Their leadoff man was a 30+ year old journeyman who showed no signs of breaking out.  And the #5 hitter?  A reject from the Rays.  They have almost half their payroll sitting on the bench in the form of Edgar Renteria, Aaron Rowand, and Barry Zito.  Their usually dominant ace Tim Lincecum had a subpar season ("subpar" by Lincecum standards, of course), going 0-5 in August.  And when it seemed like the Giants simply needed more offense, general manager Brian Sabean went out and added two bullpen arms.  The list goes on.


But none of that matters, what matters is that the Giants stand atop the NL, with a chance to take home the World Series crown for the first time since 1954.  How they did it will be left up to debate for years, but that's where we are now.  Duane Kuiper has cleverly coined the term "Giants baseball: Torture" as the motto of the 2010 season, but in light of the previous seasons, this is the best that Giants baseball has ever been.  The hearts of Giants fans still ache from the oh-so-close-just-6-outs-away-goddamit moment of 2002, their frustration amplified by the quick exit from the playoffs in 2003, their faith questioned by the heartbreaking end to 2004 at Dodgers stadium, and their determination strained from the lackluster finshes from 2005-2009.  


This year was different.  It was the same - great pitching and barely viable offense - but different.  The Giants have a chance, a chance to end their half-century long drought.  On paper, the Giants pale in comparison to the Rangers, who possess a powerful and deadly offense and a postseason pitching god in Cliff Lee.  Many have already begun to write us off already, but this has been the case all season long.  They wrote us off before the season even began, pointing out our offensive incompetence, they wrote us off when we slumped our way out of the race temporarily in late June, and they wrote us off again at the beginning of the NLCS.  The Giants proved their critics wrong time and time again - and there's no reason they cannot do it now.  Statistics may tell a story over a season, but in 7 games, anything can happen.


If this is truly torture, then call me a masochist, because I'm loving every second of it.