Chicago at San Francisco

What has happened to Matt Cain? The answer is, he has gotten better! The win-loss numbers are ugly, as he stands at 5-13. But he has been an extremely hard-luck pitcher all season. The Giants are just 6-19 when he takes the hill, bad enough on paper for a ticket back to AAA. But, Cain is a top pitcher (3.78 ERA), and has been improving (2.70 ERA his last three). He won a lot of games last year, but this year he has drawn the short straw on run support, getting the least support in his starts of any pitcher in baseball. Cain has allowed 3 runs or less in 18 of 25 starts (72%) which ranks near the top of the league, and with an ERA in the 3's, hardly a pitcher on the verge of demotion. Signs of a luck change have been taking place as the Giants have now won three of his last five starts. Will the real Carlos Zambrano please stand up! The Cubs were 5-7 in Zambrano's first 12 starts, and his ERA was 5.62. Then they were 9-2 in his next 11 starts, and his ERA was 1.40. The Cubs are now 0-3 in his last three starts, and his ERA has been 7.13. When he is not on, he gets pounded. When he is on he is unhittable. Zambrano did the same last year, the Cubs were 5-7 in his first 12 starts, then 12-4 in his next 16, then 2-3 to finish. We have a pitcher in Cain that has been consistently good all year, vs. a pitcher in Zambrano that is either in lights out mode, or hammer time mode. He is currently in hammer time mode, so we will ride the home dog here.