Cubs find Cain able in 4-1 loss to Giants
SAN FRANCISCO -- The most misleading stat in baseball can be a pitcher's win-loss record.
Take the Giants' Matt Cain, for instance. The Cubs wish somebody else would have taken him Thursday, as Cain beat the Cubs with his arm and his bat in a 4-1 victory for the Giants.
San Francisco salvaged the final game of this three-game series and cut the Cubs' lead in the National League Central to one-half game over the idle Milwaukee Brewers.
Cain has a record of 6-13, but he's received virtually no run support. He sports a nice 3.67 ERA.
"His numbers are all right except for his wins," said Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee, who was on the business end of an 0-for-4 afternoon at the hands of Cain. "Sometimes, that's not in your control. He pitched a good game. He has a very good fastball."
The Cubs were trying to complete a sweep after surviving games in which the Giants started Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito.
The right man appeared to be on the mound for the Cubs in Carlos Zambrano.
In his first official start since signing a $91.5 million contract extension -- Sunday's start was rained out after three innings -- Zambrano couldn't corral his control, and he fell to 14-10.
"I don't think it's going to be loss, loss, loss, loss, loss until I retire," said Zambrano, who maintained a sense of humor. "I think at some point I will win a game. I'm working on it."
Zambrano walked three in the fourth inning, including Cain with two outs and two on. Dave Roberts made Zambrano pay with a 2-run single.
"The one to the pitcher really hurt," said Cubs manager Lou Piniella, whose team fell to 65-61.
Cain wasn't finished. In the sixth, he hit a 2-run homer. It was his second of the year, equaling the total of Zambrano, himself a pretty fair hitter. In other words, Cain pulled his best Zambrano imitation.
"Yeah, he did," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "I mean pitching, and if you thought a pitcher was going to hit a home run today, I don't think Cain would have been your pick. He did it all."
Zambrano gave up 6 hits and all 4 runs in 5½ innings. He was kicking himself for issuing 4 walks.
"I was feeling good today and made some mistakes," he said. "That was the thing that sometimes (ticked) me off. I shouldn't make those mistakes, and go out there and do my job."
The Cubs had a couple of chances against Cain. Daryle Ward led off the second with a double but got picked off by catcher Guillermo Rodriguez. Mark DeRosa followed with a walk, and Mike Fontenot later doubled, but Ward's pickoff proved costly.
"I was a little overaggressive in just getting off the base," Ward said. "I wanted to get a good jump. If DeRosa hits the ball hard somewhere, I wanted to be able to score. It's just one of those plays. It really shouldn't have happened. I should have thought about it a little bit differently.
"I'm out there. I want to score. I'm a big guy. I've got to get some stuff going, and they recognized it and picked me off."
Jason Kendall doubled leading off the seventh, and Fontenot singled him home, But another comeback was not to be for the Cubs, who were happy to get two of three.
"If we win two out of three the rest of the year, I think we're all going to be very happy," Piniella said. "Let's go to Arizona and try to do the same."
Giants 4, Cubs 1
At the plate: Giants pitcher Matt Cain's 2-run homer in the sixth provided a 4-0 lead. A Jason Kendall double followed by Mike Fontenot's RBI single in the seventh was all the scoring for the Cubs.
On the mound: Matt Cain outpitched Carlos Zambrano, shutting down the Cubs for 7 innings, allowing 8 hits for his sixth straight quality start. Brad Hennessey earned his 13th save in 15 chances. Zambrano gave up 6 six hits and 4 walks in 51/3 innings as his ERA climbed to 3.95.