Cain a two time All-Star?

Giants 3 Reds 0

With just about a month to go until the All-Star game it is apparent that Matt Cain is the Giants best pitcher right now.  Sure Tim Lincecum gets all the pub, but the numbers just don't lie.  The only thing that Lincecum has on Cain is his W-L record. (5-2 for Timmy, 5-4 for Matty) well and his strikeouts.  But,with the exception of one start in San Diego in which he gave up 5 runs, he has allowed 3 ERs or less in all 12 of his starts this season.  He only allowed 3 earnies in 2 other games besides the San Diego game.  (he did give up 4 runs against the Astros in his first start of the season but only 3 of those were earned.)  He could easily be 8-1, if you just wanna chalk up the games he allowed 2 runs or less as wins and the others as losses he could be 9-3. (remember he gave up 1 unearned run in a complete game against Oakland and was still tagged with a loss)  Any way you look at it, he is pitching at an All-Star level.

He proved that again tonight by shutting out the highest scoring offense in the NL.  It was only the 5th time in 600 games at the Great American Ballpark that has happened.  The solo HR by Juan Uribe, who is becoming one of my favorite Giants, was all the offense the Giants really needed tonight but the Giants did manage to get 2 insurance runs in the 8th inning. 

Freddy Sanchez was held hitless tonight snapping his hitting streak after 11 games.  But don't worry because another Giant has a hitting streak of his own.  The force of nature that is Buster Posey has hit in 7 straight.

Lots of other Giants stuff going on tonight:

Of course we had day 2 of the draft and the Giants selected 3 more CFs bringing their total of Centerfielders drafted to 4 so you gotta wonder what that means for Aaron Rowand.  Most of them can fly from what I understand so maybe the Giants have just decided to go with small ball as an organizational philosophy.  I'm not going to act like I know anything about any of the guys the Giants drafted, but there is a lot of info on them in the article that I linked in this paragraph.

On the Farm:

John Bowker may be the ultimate 4A player or he may be a guy who, like Fred Lewis is turning out to be,  just needs to play somewhere else in order to realize his potential.  he went 3 for 4 with a HR tonight in a 2-1 loss for the Fresno Grizzlies against the Sacramento River Cats.  (Is it just me or do the Grizzlies play the River Cats ALL THE TIME?)  Eric Hacker may have righted what was wrong after 3 subpar outings by throwing 6.1 innings and only giving up an unearned run.  He also had 6ks and held the River Cats to just 4 hits.

Hmmm do you think the White Sox may be interested in a trade that includes John Bowker and Eric Hacker for Paul Konerko???  Maybe throw in a Kevin Pucetas or a Joe Martinez?  If the Giants do make a move regarding Konerko they had better make it soon because he is going to be more valuable as the trading deadline nears and more teams realize they need a big bat or if a star gets injured.

Madison Bumgarner apologized and was fined for his temper tantrum the other night but the biggest news was Bochy's possible Freudian slip regarding Madbum in which he said that the lefty was "real close" to a promotion and he wasn't bothered by the outburst. "He's competitive," Bochy said. "We know that."  I wonder how close is "real close"  in the Bochster's book?  Although he did backpedal a little bit and say "If any moves are made, we'll do it when we feel it's the right time."

In other prospect news that surprised no one, well except for the Giants fans who seem to think he's out to get them, Brian Sabean said that the Giants have "No intentions" of sending Buster Posey back down to Fresno.

Nate watch:

Nate came in as a pinch runner for Pat Burrell in the 8th inning and scored a run.  he also had an at bat in the 9th with runners on second and third and 2 out and struck out to end the inning.  Effectively giving Bochy another piece of evidence to back up his "struggling" theory.

Oh and last, but not least, the Giants selected Bruce Bochy's son in the 20th round of the draft.  Teams do things like this a lot but once in a while it works out.  Anybody remember this guy named Mike Piazza?   He was drafted in the 62nd round as a favor to dad's lifelong friend Tommy Lasorda.  He turned out OK.  But I wouldn't hold my breath.