Matt Cain a Hard-Luck Loser No More

SAN FRANCISCO -- Matt Cain was the best losing pitcher in baseball the past two years, a victim of an almost criminal lack of support.

Cain pitched six innings or more and allowed two earned runs or fewer without getting a victory 26 times, most in the majors over that span.

His 3.71 ERA and his 15-30 record simply didn't fit together.

Rather than sulking over his bad luck, though, Cain tried to change it.

"He looked in the mirror and said 'Maybe I can do a little better at this or that,' " Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti said. "And he has."

Now, Cain is pitching even better, and the Giants are scoring for him. He's 8-1 with a 2.55 ERA, on a path toward the All-Star Game.

Ask him if he feels that this the reward for those two years of suffering, and Cain has an interesting answer: "It's weird, but I feel like going through all that made me a better pitcher."

His ERA is lower than in any of his first three full seasons, but at first glance you think he may just be getting lucky. His opponents' batting average, walks and strikeouts are all about the same this year. If anything, the peripheral numbers are each slightly worse this season than his career numbers coming into this year.

Except one.

Cain had allowed opponents to hit .244 with runners on base in his career coming into this season. This year: .149.

With runners in scoring position? .105. With two outs and runners in scoring position? .034. That's right, he's given up one hit in 29 at-bats this season in that situation.

Coincidence?

"Maybe I'm realizing what that guy is trying to do at the plate (in clutch situations) and I'm taking advantage of his aggressiveness or knowing how to get him in a different way than I did in the past," he said.

Cain said his new approach, one that has come with some maturity, is to slow down and focus on one out at a time, even if that out results in a run, rather than trying to overthrow and whiff his way out of a jam.

"I feel like in years past I've had situations where guys got on, say second and third and no outs, and it's early in the game, and I'd feel like I couldn't let them score," Cain said. "Then I'd give up a big inning. Now, I go 'You know, if I give up a fly ball and the guy scores and we give up one run, it's not a big deal.'"

Cain is also in better shape, the result of greater attention paid to his conditioning since the middle of last season. He said that's helped him stay strong late in games.

"If you have a game where maybe your legs are tired later in the game, your body can pick you up," Cain said. "I feel like I have my whole body, whereas before I'd feel like I had to muscle through."

The result has been that Cain -- not reigning Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum -- has been the Giants' best pitcher. He's no longer Hard Luck Matt Cain.

Now he's just one of the 24-year-old anchors of a pitching staff. (Cain is actually 3 1/2 months younger than Lincecum.)

"It started in the spring, you could really see he just had a confidence," Righetti said. "He didn't feel he had to sit there and light up the gun. He felt comfortable that he could be successful if he just got the ball where he wanted to. His stuff was getting better...

"He's really in that mode, and it's a winning-type mode. That's what you do when you are a winner, you make yourself better."