San Francisco, CA – The way he started the game, it was hard to believe the outcome. After allowing a run in each of the first three innings, Matt Cain was off to another bad start. But this time he may have shocked himself.

The Giants blanked the Marlins 6-4. Cain recorded his first win of the 2014 season since August 17, 2013 in Miami. San Francisco’s offense backed him for the win to improve to 11-3 in the first game of the series. The Giants recorded their 50th home run this season.

“That says a lot about him,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He didn’t cave in. It wasn’t a very auspicious start.”

“Getting out of that gave him some confidence,” Buster Posey said of Cain’s first three innings. “And he was able to build off that.”

Derek Dietrich took Cain deep to right field in the first. Garrett Jones followed with a two-run homer in the second giving the Marlins a quick 3-0 lead. Casey McGehee hit a RBI double in the third when Cain got out of the inning without further damage after putting three on base.

San Francisco scored their first run bottom of the second when Tyler Colvin doubled to leadoff the frame and scored on Brandon Hicks ground out. Then Michael Morse’s two-run homer trimmed the lead to one. He recorded his tenth home run of the season making it a 4-3 game.

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“We just keep fighting, man,” said Morse. “Our team’s determined. We’ve got a good ballclub. We’re not giving in.”

Morse became the first Giant to record 10 home runs in the team’s first 42 games of the season since Barry Bonds (11) did it in 2007. His home run was the 50th of the season for San Francisco, they hadn’t reached this number last season until June 23.

Cain settled down to retire the next three batters in the third. Posey brought the crowd to its feet when he knocked a 2-run double to right field scoring in both Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence who is hitting .362 with 21 runs scored. He went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs scored.

“An out is an out, and they are tough to come by in this league,” said manager Mike Redmond. “It would’ve been a big out for us. The aftermath was three runs. Nobody saw it, and foul balls are not reviewable.”

“That was frustrating,” Nathan Eovaldi said. “But at the same time, I have to be able to move past that and make the next pitch.”

Colvin hit his second double of the night putting runners in scoring position and knocking out Eovaldi in the fourth. The Giants scored three runs with only one out. Brad Hand forced Brandon Crawford to ground out, intentionally walked Hicks and struck out Cain to end the inning.

Eovaldi tossed 4.1 innings, surrendered seven hits, allowed six runs, two walks, one home run and two strikes. This was his worst outing of the year and shortest time on the mound. The six runs he gave up is the most he has allowed in an outing since August 16, 2013 when he yielded 11 runs (9 ERs) to the Giants.

“It’s been a long time,” said Cain referring to his win tonight. “If your timing’s off, in general, you can miss by a lot.

Note – Tim Hudson will miss his start tomorrow due to a left sprained hip he encountered in his last start against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He’s been day-to-day while still maintaining light workouts. The Giants don’t expect to put him on the 15-day disabled list.

The team feels that he’ll be fine for his next start and the extra days of rest is what the veteran pitcher needs. To determine the decision of skipping Hudson’s start was a reevaluation of the hip within the 24hours confirmed that it was best to replace him with Yusmeiro Petit.

“Tomorrow we’re going to skip Tim Hudson’s start due to a sprained left hip,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “He felt it last start against the Dodgers and there is no plans to DL him. We just want to be cautious and rest him, I’m sure he’ll be fine for his next start. Petit will start tomorrow in his place.”

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