Matt Cain has never been really lucky.
The Giants' No. 2 pitcher, who is pretty much an ace pitching behind one of the biggest aces in the game, has historically been a low-ERA, low-win total guy because his team just doesn't give him much run support.
So much so, in fact, that there's a term for a starting pitcher's wasted effort and it's called "getting Cained," says The Chronicle's Henry Schulman.
The latest victim of the "Cainings" is none other than the Giants' young, promising starter Madison Bumgarner, who fell to 2-8 on the season with his 3-0 loss to the Reds on Thursday night.
In the game, Bumgarner threw 112 pitches and went 7 innings while giving up just eight hits and one earned run. Those numbers are usually good enough to win a game -- but not this time and not for Bumgarner.
As Schulman pointed out, five of his eight losses have seen the opposition score a total of just 12 runs while in seven of his eight losses have scored just one run or been shut out. That's the definition of a "Caining".
To make matters worse for Bumgarner, in his last nine starts, he has an ERA of 1.93 but has a 2-5 record to show for it.
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The fact is, baseball is a game of failure at the plate. The pitchers win much more than the hitters do by law of averages, but that's some tough luck has fallen on Bumgarner this season.
