In what felt like a snapshot from the 2007 season, the Giants wasted another solid pitching effort from Matt Cain. Cain pitched 7 innings of 3-run ball but got the loss when the Giants couldn’t get anything going offensively against Rich Harden.
Cain’s final line on the night looks like this: 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 11 SO, 0 HR
After looking at Cain’s line, it got me to wondering, how many times has a Giants pitcher struck out 11 hitters or more in a game, and lost? Thanks to the handy Play Index tool at Baseball Reference, I can answer that very question.
From 1956-2008, 11 other Giants pitchers have struck out 11 hitters or more in a game but received a loss. The last time it happened was 33 years ago in 1975 when John “The Count” Montefusco struck out 12 Cincinnati Reds hitters over 8 innings pitched. The Count gave up 4 earned runs that game and received the loss.
Here’s what our list of unlucky pitchers looks like:
Cnt Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR GmSc
----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+
1 Matt Cain 2008-06-14 SFG OAK L 0-4 GS-7 ,L 7 6 3 3 1 11 0 63
2 John Montefusco 1975-09-12 SFG CIN L 3-6 GS-8 ,L 8 7 5 4 3 12 0 59
3 Ed Halicki 1975-08-29 SFG PHI L 1-3 GS-8 ,L 7.2 5 3 2 2 12 0 69
4 Gaylord Perry 1970-06-30 SFG SDP L 2-3 GS-8 ,L 8 5 3 3 0 11 2 71
5 Juan Marichal 1969-08-19 SFG @NYM L 0-1 CG 14 ,L 13.1 6 1 1 1 13 1 104
6 Ray Sadecki 1968-04-26 SFG LAD L 1-4 CG 9 ,L 9 3 4 0 3 11 1 81
7 Juan Marichal 1967-06-11 SFG @ATL L 3-4 CG 10 ,L 9.1 10 4 2 4 12 1 64
8 Gaylord Perry 1966-09-14 SFG PHI L 0-2 GS-8 ,L 8 4 1 1 1 11 1 80
9 Gaylord Perry 1965-06-04 SFG @CIN L 2-4 GS-7 ,L 7 7 4 3 1 11 1 59
10 Bobby Bolin 1963-09-05 SFG HOU L 2-5 GS-10 ,L 9.2 6 4 1 6 13 0 74
11 Mike McCormick 1961-08-04 SFG MLN L 1-2 CG 9 ,L 9 6 2 2 4 12 2 75
12 Sam Jones 1960-07-26 SFG MLN L 1-3 CG 9 ,L 9 7 3 3 5 11 0 67
Cain joins a group with some of the best pitching talent in modern San Francisco Giants history. John Montefusco was the last Giant to win Rookie of the Year, he won it in his excellent 1976 season. Halicki and Montefusco were both from New Jersey and both threw no-hitters in a Giants uniform. In fact, Montefusco’s no-hitter on the last day of the 1976 season was the last no-no thrown by a Giants pitcher. A bulk of this list is inhabited by Gaylord Perry — 3 times — and Juan Marichal — 2 times. Perry and Marichal went on to have Hall of Fame careers and are two of the best pitchers ever to wear a Giants uniform in the modern era. Ray Sadecki is mostly known for his 1968 season in which he lost 18 games, still the franchise record for most losses in a season. He also holds the unfortunate distinction of being the player the Giants acquired in the trade that sent Orlando Cepeda to the St. Louis Cardinals. I don’t know much about Bobby Bolin but he had a nice couple of seasons for the Giants from ‘64-’66. Mike McCormick had two stints with the Giants and won the Cy Young Award for his 1967 season. Sam Jones had a brief, but very good Giants career, winning 47 games over 2.5 seasons.
The game that sticks out to me the most on this list is #5 — which I’ve bolded. Juan Marichal throws 13.1 innings of 1-run ball against the New York Mets in 1969. Marichal is classic for his ability to throw giant gobs of innings. In fact, the 13.1 inning game by Marichal isn’t even a career high for him. His 1963 duel against Warren Spahn that lasted 16 innings might just be one of the great games pitched ever. And if that hasn’t blown your mind, consider this: Marichal pitched 9 innings or more as a starter 232 times in his career. That means, out of the 457 career games that Marichal started, he was likely to go 9 innings or more 51% of the time! If Marichal was pitching, the bullpen wasn’t.
I hope by the time Cain’s career is done, we can talk about him in the same breath as the pitchers mentioned above.
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Missing Prospect Found: I just noticed that the AZL Giants roster has been posted online. You can find the roster right here. Most noted on the roster is Wendell Fairely whom the Giants drafted 29th overall in the ‘07 First Year Players draft. Fairely, who is considered raw but extremely athletic, has battled some injury problems and has yet to make his way into his first professional game. The outfielder was ranked as the 8th overall prospect in the Giants farm system by Baseball America before this season. To my knowledge, he’s been in extended spring training this year trying to get healthy and ready to play. Hopefully we’ll see Fairely get into some games on June 22nd when the AZL starts it season.