Cain Goes Down

After watching John Smoltz finally earn his first victory of the season for the Boston Red Sox, I considered benching Matt Cain.

Sure, Smoltz getting the W has nothing to with Cain would perform well or not in his home start vs the freshly no-hitted San Diego Padres, but having witnessed some uncanny fantasy-team-related behaviors (win, saves, homer, and hitless streaking by multiple players, too orchestrated to be completely coincidental) on my fantasy team, I had an undeniable and utterly illogical apprehension towards leaving Cain in the starting slot.

Wouldn't you know it, Cain gets smacked by a come-backer on what appears to be his right and throwing arm elbow, off the bat of the opposing starter. Unbelievable.

His first and lone practice toss to the plates sails about six feet above his catcher, Eli Whiteside, prompting a simultaneous universal gasp.

Post-X-ray reports have indicated that there's no structural damage on Cain's right elbow, but I can't imagine it feels good.

I was pretty amazed that Cain tried to convince his trainer and manager of allowing him to continue pitching in the game. Perhaps he wanted to get the third and final out of the second inning with runners at the corners, but as the San Francisco broadcast on NBC 11 kept showing in slow motion, the ball definitely appeared to strike Cain right on his throwing elbow, as he reacted to the line-drive shot right back at him.

Luckily, Cain appears to have escaped with just a bruise and Justin Miller was able to relieve him by stranding the two men Cain had allow on base.