By Dallas McMurryEdited by Joey McMurry of The Flury
Wednesday night I had the opportunity to go see my favorite team play for the only time all year long. I was pretty happy to go to the game seeing as how I wouldn’t be able to make any trips to AT&T all year long due to school in San Diego. I figured the day would go as most Giants games I attend: I’d go there, root hard, and watch my team play a game against the Astros, nothing too special, as the Astros have no real star power. The most exciting thing for me going into the game was “hey, I’ve never seen Matt Cain pitch in person, so I’m excited to see him, and the Giants better not bench Posey tonight.” Strange I had never seen Matt Cain pitch, I’ve seen Livan Hernadez, Russ Ortiz, Jason Schmidt, Lincecum, Zito, Bumgarner, Todd Wellemeyer, and Jonathan Sanchez, over my travels to San Francisco, but never Matt Cain. Cain was always my favorite Giant pitcher since he was called up Yes, Lincecum was “the Freak”, but Cain came up in a year where the giants really needed to find a new pitcher, and his personality was one that makes you think he’s just a normal guy who just wants to win games.
However, my
thought process for this game was that it’d be one of those close games where
the Giants can’t hit a lick, and Matt Cain had to do everything for the team. I
love my Giants but I think you can’t be a real Giant fan unless you’re a
skeptic, good stuff isn’t supposed to happen to us. Maybe that’s all changed
since 2010, but I doubted I’d ever be able to shake my doubts.
Anyway, as
I arrived to the game my first mission was to buy a new Giants hat at the
Dugout store. The last time I bought a hat there was 2010, and the Giants won
the world series that year, so being a superstitious baseball geek I figured I
needed to do this again in order to give the Giants any kind of chance this
year. I got my hat, a Posey shirt to replace the Wilson tee I was currently
wearing and made my way to my seats. I
got to my seats where I watched the Astros take BP and went to grab some food
before the first pitch.
Game time,
it was 7:15 and Matt Cain throws a first
pitch strike to start the game (his first of 19 on the night). Cain pitches a
great inning and gets out of it 1-2-3 with two K’s and the Giants are due up.
Since Cain was pitching tonight I just figured Giants would do something dumb,
start game with 2 guys on and hit into a double play or something like that.
However, I was gladly wrong. The game becomes
the most fun Giants game I’ve ever been to once Cabrera steps up to the
plate. I can hear this guy next to me yelling to his friend “dude you’ve got to
check this out there is a guy in the cove on a JETPACK! It’s crazy!” The guy
replies, “whatever man, hold on I wanna see Melky hit.” I’m thinking, “nice
this guy’s a true fan next to me. There is a dude in the cove on a jetpack and
he doesn’t even care.” Neither did I, however I wanted Cabrera do something.
First pitch and boom, two run homerun. I’m thinking “sweet! That’s the ball
game we’ve got Cain a two run lead already , this is over,” then I take a quick
glance to the Cove, and sure enough there is jetpack dude, just flying in the
bay, no big deal. Two more outs and
inning over, Cain gets ready to take the mound.
Inning
two starts and again Cain goes 1-2-3
with a K. At this point Cain already looks dialed in, he’s hitting every single
spot and gets the Giants back to the plate. For the second straight game Belt
goes yard and the Giants get a total of three runs in the bottom of the second
, I text some friends, “This is the most UnMatt Cain game ever, 5-0 in the
third?” Again Cain goes 1-2-3 with two
more K’s, and I’m pretty into the game
at this point; the Giants are hitting, Cain is dealing - looks like it’ll be a
blowout. Jokingly I think only a no hitter is going to keep all these fans here
tonight. Who knew?
So once Cain takes the mound in the
fourth I get the first real thought of a perfect game, I wondered if Cain had given a hit up yet and
then look to the scoreboard see a 0 in the Astros hit column and think, “cool I
can root for a perfect game now,” still Jokingly, but now it’s at least on my
mind, but it wasn’t until the fifth inning until I had concern about the perfecto.
In the bottom of the fifth Cain
hits a single between shortstop and third base and I’m thinking, “oh great Cain
is going to have to run the bases now and get tired, we need to get him off
soon.” Sure enough next batter is Blanco, and he drives it for a home run,
getting Cain off base and letting him rest. It’s now a full-on blowout 10-0
after the fifth with Cain in complete control.
As the sixth inning starts I’m
thinking “I may actually be witnessing the best pitching performance in Giants
history tonight.” And not just me, but everyone else at the park knew that Cain
had a shot at this perfecto as well; every out was electric after the fifth
inning. Then in the sixth I thought it was all over. Snyder hit a ball off Cain
that looked like a no-doubt home run, but Melky just kept running I was thinking
“ here it is, he’s going to rob the homer
for that one play every no-hitter needs.” But the ball just somehow died, and
fell right at the warning track for a rather routine fly ball. 42,000 people
let out a big sigh of relief, then one giant cheer. After that I looked at my
dad and we both knew the situation, but neither of us said a word, just “Cain’s
pitching pretty good, 11 K’s already” trying to follow the golden rule of no-hitters
by not jinxing it.
From the
seventh inning on the entire crowd was filled with energy on every pitch, by
far the loudest I’ve ever heard at a baseball game. The seventh inning is where
just about anyone will be able to tell you they knew Cain was going to get the
perfect game and it came right after the amazing catch by Blanco. I don’t think
I’ve ever been so into a game like this.
As soon as that ball was hit I’m yelling
“crap there it is, it’s over…wait Blanco is still running like he’s going to
catch it, no way he’s actually going to
get there.” He then makes the greatest catch I’ve ever seen in person and the
crowd just goes nuts.
I’m talking you would have thought we just won the world series again. Everyone is jumping up and down, high fiving people who they don’t even know. After that play it felt like it was destined. That was it, the one play that needs to happen to make a perfect game. Was it by sheer luck that the Giants had just changed their outfield to shift left? Nope, it was the baseball gods repaying Matt Cain. That had to be the only explanation, here I am in San Francisco watching what could be the greatest pitching performance in the history of baseball, I couldn’t think of anything else. As the seventh inning ended I’m just hoping the Giants at bats go quickly, I just want to see Cain back on the mound.
At this point I’m doing anything I
can to not jinx the game and I mean anything. It was so cold outside but I
hadn’t had my sweatshirt on all night, so I couldn’t put it on, my belt felt so
awkward and needed to be fixed, but it had been that way all night so why
change it now? I couldn’t do anything to mess with the karma of the game.
That’s what makes these situations so great, the suspense of every single pitch.
Cain knows he has the perfect game. You can tell he’s trying to stay calm but
you can see his nerves as he skips one to the plate as it hits the backstop for
a ball. Still Cain strikes out one more batter in the eighth and ends the
inning, still perfect.
I can’t sit down at this point I’m
too excited, it seems another 40,000+ felt the same way as then everyone stood
and waited for the giants to get to the top of the ninth, thankfully the Giants
went 1-2-3 and Cain walked out to the mound. I look at my dad and we just say
“this is it, Giants can get a win here, Cain’s at 14K’s this game, pretty
impressive.” Not a single word about the
perfecto, no way is this going to be my fault for talking about it. All game
I’ve told myself he can do it, but he won’t, it can’t happen because I’m at the
game, this is still the Giants, I’m trying to make myself not believe its going
to happen. But I couldn’t help it when Cain takes the mound and the entire
place erupts. I can’t help but yell as loud as I can either, taking in the
moment. “Screw it this IS going to happen it’s MATT CAIN.” First batter and a
fly ball to Melky that’s just foul but caught.
Out number one.
Everyone is as loud as they
possibly could be as Cain takes on batter number two, it’s Snyder again and he
already had a nicely hit ball that Cabrera caught at the wall so I’m pretty
nervous. Snyder ends up getting out in front and under a ball and hits a fly
ball to Melky again.
Out number two.
At this point I’ve never been more
excited. Not the 2010 world series win even, maybe it was the fact I was at the
ballpark, one of 42,000 in the entire world, and history of the Giants to ever
witness this game. That’s when Castro came to the plate as a pinch hitter. Great, this Stanford alum is going to
ruin everything, he probably has family at the game, he has every reason in the
world to want to stop this perfect game. Cain was at 124 pitches with a 1-2
count he steps off the mound and takes a look around the park, soaking in the
moment and the crowd somehow gets even louder as Cain gets back to the mound
and then throws pitch 125. It’s a well hit ball to Arias, the kind that you can
just beat out for a hit, but Arias fields it perfectly as everyone holds their
breath and then fires a bullet to Belt at first, beating Castro to the bag by
at least two steps.
Out number three. Out number
twenty-seven.
That was it, I just witnessed the
greatest pitching performance in Giants history, I must have been yelling for a
good 10 minutes non-stop. I couldn’t believe it. I high fived my dad a couple
of times as we couldn’t hold in the
emotions, it was crazy every single fan was jumping up and down as if we had
just hit a walk-off homerun in Game 7 of the world series. 128 years and no
Giant has ever done it and I was there to witness it. It was no doubt the
greatest game of my life, and something that I’ll be able to talk about for
years. As the crowd started to calm Amy G
began to interview Cain, after
just being mobbed by the whole team he went on to talk about the best game of
his life. As they interviewed him I was starting to think, it had to be Matt
Cain. It had to be him to accomplish
this feat. I don’t think there is a guy
who deserves it more than him. The only
way to describe Matt Cain is that he is Matt Cain. That’s it there’s no one
like him. A great personality and a better pitcher, and there will only ever be
one Matt Cain.
