Matt Cain's Perfect Game

Three innings in, the Giants were up on the Astros, eight to nothing. By the fifth, it was ten to zip. After a long home run drought at home for the Giants offense, Cabrera, Belt, and Blanco put up three to follow Bumgarner's and Belt's last night.

And then, by the top of the sixth inning, it was clear that something bigger could be happening. By the seventh, they needed everything to keep it alive...

...and Gregor Blanco was there just in time. (Can somebody make a GIF of that?)  Update:

By the end of the ninth, the only numbers that mattered were: Matt Cain, nine innings pitched, no hits, no runs, no walks, and a career high fourteen strike outs, in 125 pitches.

The twenty-second perfect game in Major League history, and the very first in the one hundred and twenty nine year history of the New York/San Francisco Giants team.

All star games, Cy Young awards, people get those every year. Matt Cain's got a perfect game.

Shutouts, Round Two: Matt Cain

The Giants had a rough road trip, we all know that. Only a few days ago, we celebrated when Barry Zito put a stop to a three game slide by throwing his first shutout since 2003. But we knew that the rest of the rotation would come around: yesterday, Bumgarner carried a no-hitter through the sixth inning, and today Matt Cain retired the first 17 batters he faced in order, all until James McDonald--the pitcher, mind you--poked a single out to left field. After McDonald, Cain retired every other batter he faced. But it wasn't just being a one hit shutout that makes it memorable; it's that Cain controlled the game from the very beginning. His final line: 1H, 11K, 0W. The team's ERA slides from 5.58 to 4.73. A few more games and it might even be respectable.

Bumgarner and Cain are up to speed. We'll get a better idea of where Zito, Ryan Vogelsong, and Tim Lincecum are over the next three starts.

Matt Cain: A Photo-Essay.

Matt Cain has signed a deal to remain a San Francisco Giant until 2017, and possibly until 2018. This deal is one of those crucial moves that management needed to make. For years they've positioned the starting rotation--especially Lincecum and Cain, and more recently Bumgarner--as the core of the Giants team. With this deal, they are one step closer to making that a long-term possibility.

More importantly, Giants fans will not have to listen to the concern-trolling of other teams, shedding crocodile tears that the Giants won't be able to keep Lincecum and Cain together, forever. With Cain's contract as the floor, maybe the Giants can't (or maybe Lincecum ends up a shareholder before it's all over). But that's not a problem for the next two years. 

As for now, see these uniforms?

They're fancy, but Matt Cain will not be wearing them. And, look at these guys...

...they're stoked about something, but not because they've found a  co-ace to share the mound with CC Sabathia. See this park? Lots of history...so much that the Red Sox rebuilt it in Florida...

...but Matt Cain will not be pitching their regularly anytime soon, so his ERA won't inflate to John Lackey size proportions. And this guy: maybe Matt Cain wants to meet him...

...but if he comes knocking it won't be a midnight rendez-vous for Dodger blue.

MATT CAIN!