Over the past two seasons Cain has been the cover boy for hard luck pitchers. Just look at the numbers, in '07 his 3.65 ERA earned him a 7-16 record (and a MLB Best-Worst FPS runner-up award). Last year, he posted a 3.76 ERA with 186 strikeouts but only went 8-14, while his teammate Tim Lincecum went 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA and won the NL Cy Young Award.
It's stunning, same team, same sour offense, completely different results.
This year things are turning around for Cain. Like Lincecum, he's got double-digit wins (10) and his ERA is a stellar 2.38 is a hair above his cohort's 2.33.
Watching Cain pitch a couple times on TV this year, it has felt like deja vu, when he got no discernible offensive support. But what is different is Cain's confidence on the mound. He's firing more strikes, has command of the zone and looks less sullen than ever before.
In 2007 and 2008, you could visible see that Cain felt the pressure to be perfect. When things weren't going his way, he would walk from the mound and sit in the dugout with his head buried in a towel. That's not happening anymore. Like Lincecum, Cain is staying loose and winning more.
It's been a renaissance of sorts.
Hopefully Cain's pre-All-Star injury, taking a line drive off his pitching arm, won't set him back at all. Because it's been fun to watch baseball's best young pitching tandem keep the Giants playoff hopes alive.
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