The Arizona Diamondbacks arrived on the shores of McCovey Cove with one thing in mind, to inch closer to the first place San Francisco Giants in the NL West. And after a five-run sixth inning the D'backs did just that, dropping Matt Cain and the Black and Orange by a score of 5-2 at AT&T Park.
Cain (L 9-7) had it going until the sixth when he imploded, giving up five earned runs on four RBI singles from Arizona, knocking him out of the game after only 5 and 2/3 innings. He seemingly was getting the squeeze from home plate umpire Tony Randazzo that seemed to take away from his concentration. In total Cainer threw 105 pitches on the night, including eight D'back hits along with three walks and five strikeouts.
Cody Ross starter the game with a bang with a leadoff homer off of Arizona's Ian Kennedy. Ross's eighth dinger of the season was hopefully the start of a great offensive showing, but the Giants bats went silent until Aubrey Huff launched one of his own in the seventh, his 10th on the year. Carlos Beltran went 2-4 in his AT&T debut, while Orlando Cabrera went 1-4 in his. As a team the Giants left six men on base, including two on in the bottom of the ninth with the tying man at the plate.
Ian Kennedy (W 13-3) had a very strong outing for the D'backs, lasting eight full innings while yielding six hits, one walk and seven strikeouts. J.J. Putz got the save in the ninth, his 25th of the season.
With the loss the Giants move to 61-48 on the year, and only one game ahead of Arizona in the NL West. Full box score can be found here.
The Giants will send out Tim Lincecum (9-8, 2.78 ERA) on Tuesday to face Daniel Hudson (10-7 3.81 ERA) for the D'backs. First pitch is set for 7:15 pm PT tomorrow with coverage on CSN Bay Area and KNBR 680 AM.