Two weeks ago, it seemed like Matt Cain was one or two bad starts away from his Major League career coming to an end. Coming off four consecutive mediocre seasons, Cain continued to struggle in spring training and gave up four runs in four innings during his first start of 2017.
Over his last 10 innings, however, Cain has turned things around, and looked especially stellar in Tuesday’s win over the Kansas City Royals, where he allowed just one run on four hits in seven quality innings. It’s the first time Cain has gone seven innings since May 15 of last year.
Former Giants pitcher and veteran broadcaster Mike Krukow thinks Cain’s last two performances are more than just a blip, but rather an indication that Cain has finally learned how to pitch without having the stuff he did early in his career, when he was a perennial Cy Young candidate.
“Number one, his backbone pitch is no longer the high fastball across the chest, and that was his signature pitch,” Krukow said when asked by Brian Murphy what has changed. “He could tell you it’s coming and you couldn’t catch up, you couldn’t get your top hand on it. A four-seam fastball would come right across the letters and you couldn’t do much with it. Now he’s pitching off the two-seam fastball, and now he’s pitching off the changeup. It’s kind’ve the natural education that happens to a pitcher if you’re lucky enough and healthy enough and you last long enough. You will transition. I came into the game throwing 95, I went out throwing 78 MPH cutters. I had one pitch and I was still getting people out.
Krukow argued that it’s actually more fun as a pitcher when you can get major league hitters out without throwing in the high 90s.
“It’s more enjoyable to do it with lesser stuff than it is earlier in your career when you’re doing it with great stuff. Back then you were a pure thrower, you had no clue how to pitch – how to read hitters, how to read ballparks, how to use an umpire’s strike zone – I mean none of those things were even aware to the young pitcher that you were, or the young thrower, and this is what’s happened to Matt Cain. He’s completely transitioned, and at some point in his life he’s going to pass this information along to somebody, and he’s got something to say.”
Krukow says he saw the change in Cain during his start at home against Arizona.
“That’s exactly what they’ve been hoping to see and you could start to see it in his last (home) start about the 2nd inning — he started to believe it. And now all of the sudden there’s complete commitment to everything he’s throwing – has a great outing at home – and now you gotta go back out there and back it up, and you’ve got to do it on the road. And that’s exactly what he does. I mean he was spot on with his command, and that’s the thing…If you go back and look at his sequences in the previous two years, he hasn’t had the command that he’s exhibiting now. He’s nailing his spots, and he’s nailing his spots with all his stuff – breaking ball, his cut, his changeup. He has totally transitioned into this new pitcher and I think he likes it, it’s fun to him, it’s challenging, and he’s seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and he’s a total believer right now.
“This to me is exciting. He’s conquered the next level and he’s doing well.”
Listen to the full interview below.