Giants find just enough offense for rare win since break

Matt Cain’s name used to double as a verb around AT&T Park.

Derek Law (4-1) pitched the seventh for the win.

Panik hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the seventh inning, Nunez had a two-run double in his first start with San Francisco and the Giants snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Washington Nationals 5-3 on Saturday.

Cain vs the Nationals: 5.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 5 Ks, 93 P, 48 S, 4/3 GO/FO. Sunday, finally, he won his 100th.

“You’re taught to freeze, and that’s what I did”, Span said.

He was poised to do it three years ago, while still in his 20s.

Giants’ starter Matt Cain earned his 100th career Major League Baseball victory in the Giants 3-1 win, posting a no-hit effort before his fifth inning departure.

He logged 62 pitches by the third inning, and had thrown 93 through five.

Pence told reporters that he was looking forward to providing a boost to the Giants (59-44), who entered Saturday with a one-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers (58-45) in the National League West. Williamson is day to day with a jammed shoulder, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Cain was the living embodiment of effectively wild. He mixed in more off-speed pitches from the beginning. “He did a nice job against a tough lineup”.

Madison Bumgarner pinch-hit for Cain and smoked a Gio Gonzalez pitch off the bricks for a leadoff double.

Pence was in Saturday’s lineup against the visiting Washington Nationals batting fifth and in right field. Nationals’ 1B Ryan Zimmerman had other thoughts.

“It’s fantastic”, Cain said. “My first reaction was, ‘I’d better run home before he (throws).’ That’s what I saw”.

Starter Jeff Samardzija, despite a better early showing than he’d had in his first two post-break outings, withered as the game progressed and was victimized by four extra-base hits that turned into four runs in the middle innings, sealing his fate. The Giants had a 2-0 lead.

Cain laughed about the whole ordeal, and tipped his cap to Bumgarner making good on the pinch hit opportunity.

“I’m glad to see him get his 100th win. Now you’ve got to get more of them”.

Bryce Harper led off the Washington sixth with a single off Giants reliever George Kontos, ending San Francisco’s no-hit bid.

Unfortunately for the Nationals, that was all the damage they could do against the Giants’ bullpen. The move checked off the top item on General Manager Mike Rizzo’s to-do list before Monday afternoon’s non-waiver trade deadline: Adding an elite, established piece to a bullpen’s back end that had gone from iffy to downright untrustworthy in a week without relinquishing a top prospect.

“It’s one of those games I felt we had to throw everything at them to win”, Bochy said. The Giants won 3-1. Said Cain: “We went with a nice, high-class Bud Light”.

Neither Span nor Bochy would say anything critical of third base coach Roberto Kelly, and it’s true, the play was an odd one that developed quickly. “But it’s going to be critical that he throws like this from now on”.

He had to be pulled midway through the win, and was given the full game off Saturday. To go through three years to get seven wins, it was definitely a long road.

“That’s the reason they brought me here”, Nunez boasted.