Cain struggles, San Francisco Giants Still Manage to win 13-8

Another San Francisco Giants skid has them 14 games under the .500 mark on the season. After dropping 3-of-4 to the Brewers, the San Francisco Giants find themselves losing another series vs the AL Central leading Twins.

The Giants sent Matt Cain to the mound on Sunday to avoid what would be their fourth time being swept already.

After a very rough couple of days offensively, the Giants bats went to work right away in the bottom of the first. Kelby Tomlinson, who was starting in place of Brandon Crawford, led off the bottom of the first with a base hit, followed by an Eduardo Nunez double. The Giants found themselves with runners on second and third with nobody out.

Aaron Hill would launch a deep fly ball into the left-center gap, scoring Tomlinson on the sac fly and giving the Giants an early 1-0 lead. Buster Posey would ground a sharp liner to first, scoring Nunez from third as the Giants added on, making it 2-0.

Cain would have a fairly quick first inning, but did not carry that over to the second. Cain did not get his shut down inning, as he allowed two solo home runs and the Twins tied it at two. Cain wouldn’t have many easy innings, as he ran into trouble each of the next few innings.

In the bottom of the fourth with the game still tied 2-2, the bottom of the Giants’ order would scratch across a run to go ahead. Hunter Pence led off the bottom of the inning with a double to left center, followed by a Nick Hundley single to give the Giants a 3-2 lead.

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Onto the fifth inning, another rough inning for Cain as he allows a lead off walk and a single with nobody out. After a bad throwing decision from Gorkys Hernadez on a routine fly ball, runners advanced to second and third with one out. Next batter, Robbie Grossman, singles to center scoring both runs and giving the Twins a 4-3 lead in the fifth. That would be all for Cain, as he goes only 4.1 IP, while giving up five runs (the fifth given up by George Kontos, but charged to Cain).

Giants head into the bottom of the fifth trailing 5-3, as the bullpen takes over and looks to keep it a two run deficit. Eduardo Nunez collects his second hit of the day, lining a double down the left field line to open up the bottom of the inning. Former Giant Chris Heston would relieve Nik Turley in the bottom of the fifth. Heston would get Nick Hundley to ground out, but Nunez would later move to third on a passed ball/steal. Posey would follow with an RBI single off Heston, making it now a 5-4 Twins lead.

Kontos and Osich would hold the Twins to five runs, as the Giants came to bat in the bottom of the seventh. Kelby Tomlinson found his way on base for the third time with a lead off walk. Nunez would stay red-hot with a single that puts runners on first and second. Aaron Hill would pop out, but Buster Posey would break the tie with a huge two-run double down the left field line, making it 6-5 Giants.

Hunter Pence (with pant legs rolled up) would continue his solid day at the plate, with his second double of the day, adding to the Giants lead. Rookie Austin Slater would follow the Pence double with an RBI single down the right field line, scoring Pence and giving the Giants an 8-5 lead.

Following the Slater single, Crawford and Span would walk to load the bases, but Giants would leave them stranded, as they successfully bat around for the first time in a long time.

Hunter Strickland, who somehow is not suspended yet, set down the Twins in the eighth, as the Giants were three outs away from avoiding the sweep at home.

In the bottom of the eighth, the bats stayed red hot. With one out, Aaron Hill singles on a bloop to left, Buster Posey also lines his third hit of the day to left and Hunter Pence, who had a fantastic game, lines his third double of the game into center field scoring Hill.

After Nick Hundley is intentionally walked, Slater continues his great day with a bases-clearing triple into triples alley, blowing it open as the Giants lead 12-5.

The next batter is Brandon Crawford, off the bench, and he lines a sac fly to right, giving the Giants a 13-5 lead headed into the ninth.

Newly-acquired Sam Dyson takes the mound for the ninth, with an eight run lead. Dyson struggles in his first appearance with the Giants. A lead off double from Sano, a single from Grossman and a walk loads the bases with nobody out. A defensive error from Posey allows a run to score, and Dyson departs without recording an out in his first outing with the Giants. Bryan Morris would allow two more runs to score, but the Giants hang on and win 13-8.

The Giants offense comes alive, collecting 13 runs on 17 hits. Tomlinson, Nunez, Posey, Pence, and Slater all have multi-hit games.

Posey and Slater both collect four RBI’s as the Giants just destroy the Twins before a must-needed rest day on Monday.

Next: What Should the San Francisco Giants do with Their First 3 Picks in MLB Draft?

After the day off on Monday, the San Francisco Giants welcome the Royals to AT&T Park for a two game series, before Colorado comes to town.

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