Matt Cain
| Matt Cain | |
|---|---|
 Cain before his Major League debut with the Giants in August 2005 |
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| San Francisco Giants – No. 18 | |
| Starting pitcher | |
| Born: October 1, 1984 Dothan, Alabama |
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| Bats: Right | Throws: Right |
| MLB debut | |
| August 29, 2005 for the San Francisco Giants | |
| Career statistics (through 2011) |
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| Win–loss record | 69-73 |
| Earned run average | 3.35 |
| Strikeouts | 1085 |
| Teams | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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Matthew Thomas Cain (born October 1, 1984) is an American professional baseball player. A starting pitcher, Cain plays for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. He is 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighs 235 pounds (107 kg).
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[edit] Early career
Cain graduated from Houston High School in Germantown, Tennessee, where he earned the nickname "Big Sugar" and was selected by the Giants in the first round (25th overall) in the 2002 MLB Draft.[1]
Prior to the 2005 season, Cain was named the #13 prospect in baseball by Baseball America.[2] He features a fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup. His fastball is thrown from 90 to 94 mph.
[edit] Major League career
[edit] 2005
Cain made his major league debut on August 29, 2005, at the age of 20 against the Colorado Rockies, losing the game despite giving up only three hits and two runs in five innings. Following his debut, Cain joined the team's regular five-man starting rotation, finding immediate success. He earned his first major league win on September 4 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and notched his first complete game, a two-hitter, against the Chicago Cubs on September 9. Cain finished his first season with seven starts over 46 1⁄3 innings in which he posted a 2–1 record, 30 strikeouts, a 2.33 ERA, a 0.928 WHIP, and a minuscule .151 opponent batting average.[3][4]
When he was called up, Cain was the second youngest pitcher in the major leagues, behind Félix Hernández of the Seattle Mariners.
[edit] 2006
Cain's 2005 performance was impressive enough that manager Felipe Alou named him to the team's 2006 starting rotation before spring training began. Cain began the season as the team's fourth starter.
In 2006, Cain struggled with consistency, but showed signs of dominance in several starts, flirting with a no-hitter on more than one occasion. On April 24, 2006, Cain pitched six innings without allowing a base runner against the New York Mets, one of the league's most prolific offenses. On May 21, Cain pitched his first complete game shutout, a one-hitter against the Oakland Athletics. On June 19, Cain pitched 7 2⁄3 innings of no-hit ball against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim before finally surrendering a single to Chone Figgins in the eighth inning.
Late in the season Cain increased his chances for Rookie of the Year consideration with a run of remarkable pitching. From August 12 to September 14 Cain recorded a 5–0 record with an almost unheard-of ERA of 0.21. During this streak, he allowed just one earned run in 42 innings—and did not allow an earned run in 30 2⁄3 innings. He led all National League rookie pitchers with 13 wins and 179 strikeouts in 2006. His 2006 record was 13–12, with a 4.15 ERA. Cain finished in a fifth-place tie in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.
[edit] 2007
In 2007, Cain changed his uniform number from 43 to 18, following the departure of Moisés Alou, who wore 18 in 2006.
He started the 2007 season with a 1.55 ERA with 11 hits in 29 innings pitched. This run was capped on April 22, in which he pitched a complete game allowing only one run (in the ninth) and just three hits. It was the third complete game of his young career. Cain's record through August 3 was 3–12. He had limited opponents to a batting average of .238 against him during that stretch. The Giants scored two or fewer runs in 20 of Cain's first 30 starts.[5] Additionally, the bullpen blew four leads behind him.[6]
Cain went 4–1 over his next five starts.[7] This stretch was bolstered in part by a power surge at the plate by Cain himself. He hit his first and second career home runs in these starts, off Tim Redding of the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano.[8]
Cain finished the season with the 10th-lowest ERA in the National League at 3.65. The Giants went 9–23 in his starts; the bullpen lost leads in five of his starts and the team scored 2 runs or fewer in 21 of his starts.[9]
[edit] 2008
Cain went 8–14 with a 3.76 ERA, 186 strikeouts and 217.2 innings. Cain's season record was deceiving, as he again received low run support. As in 2007, Cain hit two home runs for the season, the third and fourth of his career.
[edit] 2009
Cain finished the 2009 season with a 14–8 record with a 2.89 ERA and 171 strikeouts. His ERA ranked seventh in the NL, and tenth in major league baseball. He finished the season with a career-high in wins (14), and winning percentage (.663).
On July 5, 2009, Cain was announced as an All Star for the first time in his young career. On Matt Cain's final start before the All Star Game, he was hit by a line drive right below his elbow and was forced to miss pitching for the All Star Team, although he did still attend and was announced as an All Star. Pirates pitcher Zach Duke replaced Cain on the NL All Star team.[10]
On September 25 Matt Cain was awarded the Willie Mac Award, presented yearly to a Giants player who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership consistently shown by Willie McCovey throughout his long career, which is voted upon by the players and coaching staff.[11]
[edit] 2010–11
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This section contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed. (February 2012) |
Cain was part of a rotation that included 2008 and 2009 National League Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum, 2002 American League Cy Young award winner Barry Zito, along with Jonathan Sanchez and Madison Bumgarner. In the month of May, Cain pitched into the sixth inning or later in all 6 of his starts while giving up 9 earned runs on 23 hits with 35 strikeouts and 18 walks in 44 2⁄3 innings pitched with an overall record of 3–3 with an 1.81 earned run average.
For the season Cain was 13–11 with a 3.14 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 177 strikeouts, 61 walks, 223 innings pitched, and 4 complete games including 2 shutouts.
On October 28 Cain capped an impressive post-season performance as he pitched 7 2⁄3 scoreless innings in Game 2 of the World Series to become the fifth pitcher to pitch at least 20 innings in the postseason without allowing an earned run, earning the nickname Big Game Cain among Giants fans.[12] His total post-season stats of a 2–0 record, with a 0.00 ERA through 21⅓ innings pitched helped the Giants win their first championship in San Francisco.[13]
Matt Cain was an Allstar for the second time in his career in 2011 and continued his success thereafter. Cain had a 2.39 ERA in 12 starts since the All-Star break but earned just 3 wins in that stretch, again illustrating that although he is a well above average pitcher he has some of the historically worst run support in recent memory.
On September 28, 2011, Cain hit his fifth career home run against the Colorado Rockies.
[edit] Personal life
Matt Cain is married (Chelsea) and has a daughter, Hartley Mae, born in December 2010.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ "Matt Cain Player File". MLB.com. http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/team/player_career.jsp?player_id=430912. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
- ^ "2005 Top 100 Prospects". Baseball America. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/features/050303top100charts.html. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
- ^ "Matt Cain Statistics". Baseball-Reference. http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/cainma01.shtml. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
- ^ "Matt Cain Stats". MLB.com. http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/stats/individual_stats_player.jsp?c_id=mlb&playerID=430912§ion1=1&statSet1=1§ion2=1§ion3=1&statSet3=1&statSet2=3. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
- ^ Haft, Chris (2007-09-16). "One hit too much for unlucky Cain". MLB.com. http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20070915&content_id=2210821&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
- ^ Haft, Chris (2007-08-04). "Cain snakebitten against Padres". MLB.com. http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20070803&content_id=2127848&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf. Retrieved 2007-08-28.
- ^ "Matt Cain 2007 Pitching Gamelogs". Baseball-Reference. http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/gl.cgi?n1=cainma01&t=p. Retrieved 2007-08-30.
- ^ "Matt Cain Home Run Log (Batting)". Baseball-Reference. http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/event_hr.cgi?n1=cainma01&type=b. Retrieved 2007-08-30.
- ^ Shea, John (2008-04-13). "Another crusher for Cain". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/12/SPCA104OHM.DTL. Retrieved 2008-04-13.
- ^ http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090712&content_id=5837910&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
- ^ http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090925&content_id=7159206&vkey=news_sf&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf
- ^ http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101028&content_id=15893052&vkey=news_sf&c_id=sf
- ^ http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_player_postseason.jsp?c_id=mlb&playerID=430912
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Matt Cain |
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Edwin Jackson 2003–04 |
Youngest Player in the National League 2005 |
Succeeded by Lastings Milledge 2006 |
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