To put Matt Cain's improvement this season into perspective, consider that with yesterday's 7-1 win over the A's he's supassed his win total from the entire 2008 season. There are still 100 games left in the 2009 season.
Matt Cain is now the winner of seven consecutive Major League Baseball starts and the proud owner of a 9-1 overall record. Matt Cain has one of the ten lowest ERA's in baseball. Matt Cain is not only leading the Giants in wins, Matt Cain is co-leading all National League pitchers in wins.
Matt Cain makes Chuck Norris afraid.
Henry Schulman crunches Cain's numbers in the Chronicle to illustrate the elite company that Cain is in right now. Since way back when the Giants moved from New York, Cain is only the fourth Giants starter to win at least nine of his first ten starts of the year. The others are Tim Lincecum, Gaylord Perry, and Juan Marichal.
Some people started up the really wacky premature playoff talk last week, and that was before they ripped off a three-game sweep. A three-game sweep where they actually took the lead in the NL Wild Card standings. If the Giants really do have two of baseball's elite pitchers on their staff, they have a great shot at keeping up with the Cardinals, Mets, and Reds.
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who does not sleep. He waits up for Chuck Norris movies.
