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Jun 8, 2010 - 4:09 AM By BRETT HUSTON STATS Writer

San Francisco (30-25) at Cincinnati (33-24), 7:10 p.m. EDT

While part of the San Francisco Giants' stellar rotation has cooled in recent weeks, no pitcher in the majors has been as dominant in his last three starts as Matt Cain.

The hard-throwing right-hander seeks his third straight victory and tries to lead the visiting Giants to their fifth win in six games Tuesday night at the Cincinnati Reds.

Times have been tough recently for the two Cy Young Award winners in San Francisco's rotation. After hot starts, Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito are 0-3 with a 6.00 ERA in eight combined outings since May 20.

The Giants (31-25) are still 9-8 overall in that stretch thanks to an excellent bullpen (2.20 ERA), though the relief corps has hardly been needed with Cain (4-4, 2.36) on the mound. Cain has allowed one earned run in 25 innings over his last three outings, lasting at least eight innings in each. He followed his one-hit shutout of Arizona on May 28 by limiting Colorado to one run and four hits over eight innings of a 4-1 victory Wednesday.

"I feel like I'm getting back into that mode of being able to locate my fastball and off-speed stuff," said Cain, who made it through seven innings just twice in his first eight starts.

Catcher Bengie Molina certainly thinks Cain, third in the majors in opponent batting average (.192), has turned the corner thanks to one particular pitch.

"He has been amazing," Molina told the Giants' official website. "... He has such an explosive fastball that if he locates it, he's really tough to hit."

Cain is 2-3 with a 3.96 ERA in six starts against Cincinnati (33-25), though he fared well in his last trip to Great American Ball Park. He gave up one run over eight innings in a 2-1, 10-inning loss Aug. 20.

Zito couldn't hang on to a three-run, fourth-inning lead in Monday's opener of this four-game set, but San Francisco's offense and relievers came through. Juan Uribe drove in two of his four runs with the Giants trailing 5-4 in the seventh, and the bullpen made the resulting 6-5 lead stand up with three perfect innings.

"Our bullpen as a whole has a mentality that we're going to go at you with our best stuff," said closer Brian Wilson, who bounced back from a blown save Sunday by converting his 15th. "We're not going to give in, we're not going to pitch around you. With that mentality, you're going to fail sometimes. Tonight we made the pitches when we needed to."

Losers of consecutive home games after winning nine of 10, the Reds will turn to rookie Sam LeCure (1-1, 3.97) as they try to avoid dropping three straight at home for the first time in 2010.

LeCure allowed two runs over six innings in his major league debut May 28 against Houston, getting plenty of support in a 15-6 win. Cincinnati's offense couldn't deliver a repeat performance Friday at St. Louis, as LeCure gave up three runs over 5 1-3 innings of a 4-1 loss.

LeCure has yielded 12 hits, eight walks and two hit batters in 11 1-3 innings.

"Both of their rallies were started with a hit batsmen and with a walk," Reds manager Dusty Baker told the team's official website. "Our young (kid) pitched a heck of a ballgame. He got into trouble a little bit with walks."

San Francisco's Freddy Sanchez, a career .321 hitter versus Cincinnati, is 20 for 40 during an 11-game hitting streak.