Giants Destroy Evil – By Sweeping Them

There are a lot of things that Matt Cain does well. A lot. But, there was one glaring omission on the back of his baseball card. A victory versus the hated Los Angeles Dodgers. For whatever reason, in FOURTEEN career starts versus the whores Dodgers, Cain has went winless. And it’s not as if he’s been blasted, pillaged, and raped in the majority of those starts. The Cain-a-nator had a mid/high two ERA last season in six starts versus the Dodgers, but still was unable to come out with a victory.

Thankfully, Cain got that monkey off his back last night. And it became even more impressive considering the win gave the Giants a sweep over their bitter rivals and it placed a steel boot in the crotch of the Dodgers, knocking them 8 games out of first and 6.5 behind the G-men.

Cain was dominating last night. Pure glue, if I can steal Kruk’s word for a moment.

The offense was, well, pretty shitty. Kershaw held the Giants hitters off balance for most of the night, and while the Giants did get some runners into scoring position from time to time, the offense either failed or it was the bottom of the order trying to get those runners in. Thankfully, the orange and black were able to break through once, and with Cain throwing darts – that’s all that was needed.

Edgar Renteria sure does like to pick his spots. He’s been terrible with the stick the last few weeks. But put him at the plate with a clutch situation and it seems like Renteria from 1997 magically appears more times than not. Renteria took a two out Kershaw pitch and lined it into the left-center gap, knocking in the only two runs of the game as he scooted into third for a triple. Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp seemed to have lost the ball for a quick moment, but even so, I don’ t think Kemp has any chance to catch it. At worst, he stops it before it gets to the wall and the Giants only score one. But it got by him. The Giants scored twice. They sweep LA.

It’s been quite a run for the Giants lately. The Padres keep winning, yet, continue to watch their first place lead shrink more and more, every day.

San Fran heads out onto the road now for a very unfriendly six game trip, starting with two tomorrow in Colorado (yes, we’ll face the U-man) and then four versus Atlanta who is a league best 34-13 at home. I’d be more than content with a 3-3 trip to be honest. Colorado in Denver is no fun despite their record and Atlanta is incredibly tough at home. Hopefully the Giants enjoy their day off today and get some much needed and well deserved rest.

I’ll touch on the Giants trade deadline acquisitions tomorrow.