The Giants win a rather pleasant game to win

This was a good game, to put it simply.

The Giants won, which is the good thing. But also that Matt Cain went five innings, gave up five hits, walked three, struck out four, and gave up zero runs. Zero!

Also good is that the Giants scored seven runs, four of them off of Stephen Strasburg.

Brandon Belt hit a home run in the top of the ninth to the second deck, which was pretty sweet. And it was off Jonathan Papelbon—even better.

In Cain’s last start, he threw five innings, gave up zero hits, walked four, struck out five, and there were no runs allowed.

It’s too early to say whether or not this is a resurgence, or if he’ll regress. While the best thing would be that he doesn’t regress, the current two-start streak of pretty good starts from Cain is encouraging.¹

Plus, there was some good defense behind him, like Belt’s heads up play to home, which prevented a couple of runs from scoring. Bless good defense.

Jake Peavy made his second appearance out of the bullpen today. While it wasn’t necessarily bad—he really only broke up the shutout with the Giants up by six runs—it was encouraging.

Well, it was encouraging as it could be.

Peavy this season hasn’t been the best, nor the best the Giants could hope for. Having him come out of the bullpen could be the change he needs and what the Giants need since they’re trying to get that good bullpen mojo back.

Today, Peavy faced three batters with two outs in the inning (thanks, Will Smith), and all three of them got on base. He didn’t get anyone out and was replaced by Derek Law.

It could be better, but it’s also encouraging that this is not something that comes every fifth day.

Eduardo Nuñez hit two triples in the game.

The second one was cool in that he made it to third rather quickly. CSN Bay Area timed him going from home to third in 10.91 seconds. That’s pretty fast. Belt doubled him in and that broke the game open some more.

Nuñez has been a pretty good pickup for the Giants, even if it came at a rather high price², but it might be worth it if he keeps up this kind of play. At the very least, that speed, man.

The Giants play an early one for west coasters tomorrow. 10:35 a.m. Madison Bumgarner faces Tanner Roark³. Here’s to hoping the Giants get a series win before going off to Miami⁴.

¹Please feel free to blame me if I end up jinxing him.

²Miss u Adalberto Mejia.

³I stopped myself from making a roaring/roarking pun here. You’re welcome.

⁴Land of the fabulous home run sculpture.