San Francisco Giants’ hurler Matt Cain is coming off a season in which he set career bests in earned run average, WHIP, wins, and strikeouts.  The 2012 campaign also included a perfect game against the Houston Astros, the 22nd such game in major league history. 

The 2013 season has not been as kind to Cain so far through four starts.  The Giants are 0-4 in games that he has started this year, with Cain coming out with the loss in two of them.  A large factor contributing to Cain’s 7.15 earned run average thus far is the long ball.  He has already given up five home runs so far in four games, compared to only 21 home runs in 32 starts all of last season. 

Secondly, Cain is not receiving adequate run support from his offense.  Over his four starts, the team has scored only eight total runs, an average of only two per game.  Comparatively, in games that Cain has not started, the Giants are scoring an average of five runs per game; a huge disparity.  When pitchers aren’t receiving proper run support, it gets in their heads.  They put more pressure on themselves and try to be too precise on the mound instead of relaxing and throwing to the mitt. 

Cain has also been having trouble getting batters out when he throws a two-strike breaking pitch.  During the whole 2012 season, he only allowed 21 total hits to batters when that scenario played out.  This year, he has already allowed eight.  Another thing to take note of is his fastball velocity.  It is probably nothing to worry about, but the average velocity of his fastball is down by about one mile per hour from last year’s mark.  However, numbers from last year indicate that this is normal for the first few starts of the season so expect the velocity to come back up in future starts. 

All in all, Matt Cain’s early season struggles are nothing more than early season struggles.  Even with a start like he’s had, it is statistically highly unlikely his numbers will continue to be this bad.  Giants’ fans and fantasy owners have to look deeper into the numbers.  It has been a tale of two starts so far.  In starts numbers one and three this season, Cain has only given up two earned runs in 13 innings, good for a 1.38 earned run average.  In starts two and four, he has given up 16 earned runs in just 9.2 innings which goes for an earned run average of 14.89.  So, there have been bright spots in his season.  All it takes is one outing to get a pitcher back on track, and I think that start will come soon for Matt Cain. 

Note

Cain isn’t the only pitcher to throw a perfect game in 2012 and struggle so far in 2013.  Houston Astros’ righty Phillip Humber, who tossed a perfect game against the Seattle Mariners last year, is coming off a start in which he lasted only one third of an inning and gave up eight earned runs on eight hits.  It just goes to show that there are extreme highs and lows for every pitcher, even those that are capable of pitching a perfect game.  Expect both Humber and Cain to bounce back at some point in the season.