Matt Cain allows unearned run, pays for his mistake

You know, it takes a pretty special performance to bump a caining like this below the fold. But the caining -- a vintage, Petco-fueled, miserable caining -- isn't the biggest story of the game. No, not tonight.

/pulls out chair

/turns chair around

/sits on backwards chair

Let's talk about Hector Sanchez.

It's okay, we're all friends, here.

If you're new to McCovey Chronicles, if you're experimenting with blogs because you're curious, we'll ease you into the situation. Here is the default position of McCovey Chronicles on Hector Sanchez:

Hector Sanchez is a talented individual who needs more time in an everyday lineup, both to work on his hitting and to work on his defense. Especially his defense. It's criminal that he hasn't been allowed to do so in Triple-A.

Criminal. It's made no sense, and this comes up in a recap about once every three weeks. An incomplete list of catchers I'd rather have on the active roster:

Welington Castillo
Chris Stewart
Yan Gomes
Kurt Suzuki
Jose Molina
Jose Lobaton
Tyler Flowers
Dioner Navarro
Hank Conger
Jeff Mathis
Brayan Pena
Rob Brantly
Ryan Hanigan
John Jaso
Josh Phegley
Erik Kratz
Wil Nieves
Carlos Corporan
Martin Maldonado
Yorvit Torrealba
Mike Zunino
Geovany Soto
Tim Federowicz
Chris Herrmann
Austin Romine
Stephen Vogt
Anthony Recker
Henry Blanco
Humberto Quintero
Tony Cruz
Gerald Laird
Josh Thole
Michael McKenry
Kelly Shoppach
David Ross
George Kottaras
Travis dArnaud
Yasmani Grandal
Guillermo Quiroz
Ryan Lavarnway
Josmil Pinto
Miguel Olivo
Hector Gimenez
Rene Rivera
Tony Sanchez
Taylor Teagarden
Koyie Hill
Francisco Cervelli
Ramon Hernandez
Jhonatan Solano
Tuffy Gosewisch
John Baker
Cody Clark
Corky Miller
Rob Johnson
Bryan Holaday
Jesus Sucre
J.R. Murphy
Steve Clevenger
Matt Pagnozzi
Chris Snyder
Brett Hayes
Bryan Anderson
Eric Fryer
Cameron Rupp
Chris Robinson
Juan Centeno
Adam Moore
Drew Butera
Miguel Gonzalez
J.C. Boscan
Johnny Monell
Steven Lerud
Lou Marson
Kyle Skipworth
Brandon Bantz
Sandy Leon
Audry Perez
Omir Santos
Mike Nickeas
John Hester

Give or take. Not because all of those catchers are better, or have more potential. That's not true in most of the cases. Not some, but most. Sanchez has more potential or is better already than most of those catchers.

But any of those catchers would allow Sanchez to ply his trade every freaking day. He's just 24, you know.

Ahem.

HE'S 24. HE'S NINE MONTHS YOUNGER THAN TRAVIS D'ARNAUD, WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE A HOT CATCHING PROSPECT. LET HECTOR SANCHEZ LEARN. DON'T SUBJECT HIM TO THIS SCRUTINY. DON'T SET HIM UP TO FAIL. DON'T SET HIS TEAM UP TO FAIL. HE ISN'T GOING TO LEARN HOW TO CATCH BY STARTING 40 GAMES A YEAR.

No one is as bad as Sanchez was tonight. No one. It was a special performance. Three strikeouts, a crucial double play, and a passed ball that lead to the winning run. That's special. That's a one-minute audition reel for someone auditioning for the part of Hector Sanchez. But it doesn't have to be like this. It never did.

I don't even know what a Brandon Bantz is, but I want one.

★★★

Oh, nothing, here's just a list of games in which Matt Cain pitched six innings and allowed one run or fewer without getting a win:

Probably should have tried harder.

★★★

Cain was amazing, though. If you were a little weirded out by his first two starts, don't be. The Cain who pitched tonight was the same guy from every year before 2013, the All-Star with a perfect game, an almost-perfect game, and postseason heroics. It was fun to watch, except for the parts that were decidedly not fun.

Seriously, though, what's more important? Would you rather have a 8-7 victory with six Padres errors bailing the Giants and Cain out, or would you rather have a 2-1 loss in which Cain looked amazing?

The victory. Don't be stupid.

But those are empty calories. Cain looking like Cain is an uplifting theme in a downer of a chapter of a book with a happy ending. I hope.

Four pitches. Command. Control. Economy. This was just about as good as Cain gets. It's too bad he took that gypsy child and threw her off a bridge in Romania when he was visiting there after his rookie year. They took that really seriously.

★★★

If you want to be annoyed at someone, be annoyed at the A's. Tyson Ross is a joy to watch. He came up in mock drafts in 2008, when the Giants drafted Conor Gillaspie with their supplemental first-rounder. He was a local kid and a projectable arm, which seemed like the kind of thing the Giants would pay attention to. They went in a different direction, and for a while, it looked like they were smart to do so. The A's couldn't get a lot out of Ross.

Then they traded him for Andy Parrino and Andrew Werner for no good reason. Parrino is like Ryan Theriot without the pedigree, and Werner is like, I don't know, Adam Cowart without the pedigree. For that, the Padres got a live arm.

I'm not going to do a side-by-side GIFparision -- it's not my team's pitcher, dammit -- but look at how wacky Ross's delivery used to be:

That's how I danced to Stetsasonic back in the day, but it's no way to throw a baseball. Here he is this year:

Much, much cleaner. The bad news is that someone in the Padres organization knows what they're doing, and they can take craggly stones and make them into polished gems.

The good news is that the Giants lost a stupid game tonight.