Matt Cain enjoys pitching against the San Diego Padres. While his recent success against the team's in-state rivals has been nice, so far this season things have not gone as planned thanks to a lack of run support from his teammates. In his last start, Cain worked seven innings, allowing just one run while striking out eight. However, the lack of runs led to a sacrifice fly for the win by Troy Tulowitzki. San Francisco managed just three hits in that game, a season low.
Cain will try and get his first win of the season against San Diego. Heis 7-11 with a 3.15 ERA in 31 career starts against the team. Recently he has gone at least seven innings in five of his last seven starts, allowing two runs or fewer in six of those games. In this recent stretch, he is 2-1 with a 1.86 ERA.
The issue is the offense for the Giants. They have had seven straight one-run games, their most since 1910. Against the Dodgers, the managed six hits on Thursday, but only scored one. The batters will be facing Tyson Ross who is 1-2 on the season with a 3.12 ERA. In his recent start he performed better than Max Scherzer, giving up just one run with seven strikeouts and a walk to Detroit. His first two starts were shaky, but adjustments have improved his throwing. He is 0-2 with a 4.15 ERA against the Giants in his career.
The Padres have not exactly been moving the bats either. They recently split the series with the Rockies, winning the Thursday game by a solo home run from Xavier Nady. Expect this matchup to be low scoring as Cain aims to get back on track for the year.