Matt Cain returned to the mound and pitched two perfect innings Monday in his first game action since last July, and the San Francisco Giants scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth to force a Spring Training tie with the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-5.
Cain's 2014 season officially ended on July 11 when he went on the 60-day disabled list due to bone chips in his right elbow. He had the chips surgically removed on August 12 and could not participate in the Giants' third World Series championship run in the past five years.
Cain returned to the mound Monday and faced the minimum six batters and induced four fly outs and two ground outs against Dodgers regulars. MLB.com's Chris Haft tweeted shortly after Cain left the game that Cain threw 20 pitches, 12 of them for strikes, in his two innings of work.
The Giants' bats were quiet through the first four innings but exploded in the fifth. Down 2-0 when they came up, the Giants got run-scoring singles from Brandon Hicks, Jarrett Parker, Joaquin Arias, and Mac Williamson. In addition, with Arias batting, the Dodgers' Carlos Frias uncorked a wild pitch to allow Hicks to score.
Los Angeles took that 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth on a two-run home run from Yasiel Puig (1), scoring Jimmy Rollins ahead of him. Down 5-2 as they came up in the seventh, the Dodgers scored twice on a Howie Kendrick RBI double and an Andre Ethier RBI single. Scott Van Slyke then tied the game in the eighth by driving in Corey Seager with a single.
Brandon League was charged with all five runs (all earned) to the Giants in the fifth in one third of an inning. He gave up three hits and walked one.
For San Francisco, Ryan Volgelsong served up Puig's dinger, and Chris Hester also allowed the two seventh-inning runs. Santiago Casilla blew the save in the eighth.
Often, tied Spring Training games will go 10 innings before ending in a tie, but managers Dan Mattingly and Bruce Bochy agreed to call this one after nine.
On Tuesday, the Giants travel to the San Diego Padres, and Los Angeles hosts a Colorado Rockies split squad. Both games will begin at 4:05 EDT.