Arrieta pitches, Schwarber hits Cubs past Giants

But Tuesday night may have been a critical point.

Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta throws against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Tuesday, August 25, 2015.

The Cubs and Giants will open a new series in San Francisco tonight at 10:05PM ET.

“He’s trying to find it”, San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. It’s fair to say he’s not where he’s going to be. “But these are things we’ll talk about after I’m done here”.

“He was locked in the first two innings and just lost there”, Bochy said.

First pitch at 7:15pm. The Cubs are 73-51 on the season. This season, opponents are batting. He was the only Chicago player to record more than one hit or one run scored. The Cubs improved to 5-0 against the Giants this year. “That’s kind of what this game comes down to”.

Affeldt said he has a torn patellar ligament but trainers told him that surgery wasn’t needed and he plans to pitch again this season, albeit with a knee brace. That’s notable, given that the likeliest candidate to replace Cain in the rotation would be Chris Heston, whom the Giants sent down to Triple-A on August 21. It was another question put to Bochy about Cain on Tuesday night, and the manager spun it into a more broad answer. “They’re a hot team, they’re playing well, but we knew that coming in”. And he’s not there yet. He walked two and struck out three.

“Right now, he’s not quite there”. Tommy Hunter would start the eighth inning. And All-Star shortstop Brandon Crawford had to exit in the eighth inning after tweaking his left side and back while striking out in the sixth. “I still have to learn to put yesterday behind and move on”. He said afterward he hadn’t felt any tightness before the last swing. That’s how we feel.

Cain was pulled after allowing six runs and eight hits in five innings. Although the injury wasn’t believed to be disabling, it was significant enough to warrant putting outfielder Juan Perez at second base – a position he hadn’t played since 2009, when he was a 22-year-old at Class-A Augusta.

“I don’t think the door is ever shut”. If the Giants were to sweep this series – getting a win tonight from Matt Cain would be a nice opening statement – they’re right back in this race.

The under is also 5-2-2 in the Giants’ last eight games overall, 9-2-2 in their last 13 games as a home underdog and 8-2-1 in their last 11 home games. But along with the best option, it’s starting to look like it might well be the Giants’ only one. Any other scenario would leave them perilously behind.

The Cubs won a relatively stress free game. Why is that? And it’s the third-best record in their own division. The Giants only run was an unearned run allowed by Arrieta’s fielding error. “You can see the fire”. “But we let that game get out of hand”. Wacky. Backup catcher Andrew Susac’s two-out, three-run double highlighted the comeback attempt. Pagan’s scheduled to play nine innings Wednesday and then rejoin the Giants to be evaluated. The second baseman is in San Francisco and has started taking light swings and playing catch.

The road win was his 10th of the year.

“He went through a long rehab and had some setbacks”, Bochy said. The right-hander yielded two runs in six innings in St. Louis but remained winless in five consecutive starts after the Giants’ 4-3 loss.