While waiting for Micah Owings to throw his first pitch against the Cubs Friday night at 8:40, I thought it would be fun to obsess over yesterday's defeat and the unlikely San Francisco hitting hero.

How improbable was it that Giants pitcher Matt Cain would be in the center of BOTH San Francisco rallies yesterday? As you must have figured at the time, pretty damn improbable.

Coming into yesterday's game at Sprint Nextel Cingular U.S. Cellular 3-Com Illinois Bell AT&T Park, Cain had a lifetime average of .103 with 12 hits in 116 AB, including 1 HR and 3 doubles. He had walked twice and struck out 60 times. He had 3 Major League runs batted in.

That means yesterday he doubled his lifetime home run total, walked for the third time in 135 lifetime plate appearances, and with two RBI, nearly matched his previous lifetime RBI total. Thursday's contest also marked the first time in Cain's 63 big league games that he has been on base more than once in the same game.

(In the interest of full disclosure, the home run was Cain's second this month, the other coming August 8th against Tim Redding of the Nationals. Maybe Cain is becoming a fearsome power threat as he gains experience. I've heard that can happen.)

Finally, I think it's interesting to note that two of Cain's five lifetime extra-base hits, two of his five lifetime RBI and three of his 13 lifetime hits are now against the same team; a team against whom he now has a .300 career average. Can you guess which team I'm talking about?

Can you?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment