SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -Giants manager Bruce Bochy was relieved to see Matt Cain on the mound Sunday, and not the guy who struggled in his previous three starts.
``He's back to who he is,' Bochy said. ``He had more pitches working and better command. He went out there, relaxed, and pitched.'
Cain tossed eight scoreless innings and Eli Whiteside had a pair of RBI doubles, leading San Francisco to a 5-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
``He was Matt Cain today,' Whiteside said. ``That's a tough lineup to shut out for eight innings. He had good stuff.'
Eugenio Velez, Juan Uribe and Pablo Sandoval each had two hits and drove in a run for the Giants, who had lost six of eight. San Francisco remained five games behind NL wild card-leading Colorado with six games left.
``We have to win all of our games and they have to lose all of their games,' Velez said. ``That's how we have to look at it. We have to keep playing.'
Cain (14-7) gave up three hits, struck out eight and walked two, snapping a personal three-game slide and setting a career high for wins. Cain, who picked up his first home win since July 6, has not allowed a run in his last 23 innings against the Cubs.
Randy Wells (11-10) allowed five runs and 10 hits over 5 2-3 innings for Chicago. Bobby Scales had an RBI triple.
``It seems like it's a broken record with me putting the team in a hole early,' Wells said. ``It wasn't my day again. I feel great and feel like I'm throwing OK. I'm a big believer in setting the tone early and their guy comes down and gets us out and I go out there and let up a run. That's the thing I was upset about the whole day - not setting the tone. I'm not happy about that.'
Sergio Romo got the first two outs of the ninth before giving up a double to Jeff Baker and Scales' triple. Jeremy Affeldt entered and walked Koyie Hill. Brian Wilson then struck out pinch-hitter Reed Johnson for his 37th save in 44 chances.
``Matt Cain was awfully good today,' Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. ``He pounded the strike zone and had a good breaking ball.'
The Cubs had won six of seven to clinch at least a .500 record for the season.
San Francisco scored three runs in the sixth to build a 5-0 lead. Whiteside doubled in Travis Ishikawa for the second time in the game and scored on Velez's single. Sandoval added an RBI single.
NOTES: A scoring change for Saturday's game took an error away from Giants C Buster Posey on a dropped foul pop in the fourth inning. ... Cubs 1B Derrek Lee was out of the starting lineup for a third day with neck spasms. ... The Cubs finished 37-44 on the road.
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