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Garcia, Cain square off at AT&T Park

Apr 9, 2011 - 2:40 PM (Sports Network) - Coming off the first shutout of his career, Cardinals southpaw Jaime Garcia hopes to shut down the Giants tonight in what should be a good pitching matchup.

Matt Cain, who went six shutout frames in his initial start, gets the mound assignment for the Giants.

Garcia blanked the Padres 2-0 last Sunday when he struck out a career-high nine batters and held San Diego to four hits in his second career shutout. His only other blanking came against the Giants, last August 22 at Busch Stadium. Garcia has sparkled against the NL West, as evidenced by his career record of 4-1 with a 1.81 ERA in eight starts (9 appearances). Only Felix Hernandez (1.50) and CC Sabathia (1.73) have a better ERA vs. NL West opponents among starting pitchers with 40 or more innings pitched.

Cain allowed five hits and fanned three over six shutout innings in a 10-0 road win over the Dodgers a week ago. He's 1-2 with a 4.71 ERA in five career games against the Cardinals.

Cain also has an incredible streak going without allowing an earned run. He's pitched 27 1/3 innings over his last four starts without giving up an earned run. The last time he did so was in a loss to the Padres last October 1 - his final regular season start of 2010.

On Friday, Aaron Rowand drilled a deep shot off the base of the left-center field fence to score the game-winning run in the 12th inning, as the defending World Series champions opened the home portion of the 2011 schedule in style with a 5-4 win.

Nate Schierholtz reached first base on a fielder's choice and then moved to third when Andres Torres clipped a dribbler down the first base line. St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols muffed Brian Tallet's throw to first to put runners on the comers with two outs.

Freddy Sanchez was intentionally walked to load the bases. That set up Rowand's long game-winning blast off Tallet to avoid spoiling a celebratory day in which the Giants raised their 2010 World Series banner before the game.

"These guys fought hard. It was quite a ballgame for a home opener," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Dan Runzler got the win after pitching a perfect 12th inning, while Brian Wilson blew a save opportunity in the ninth inning. The Giants used eight pitchers in the win while the Cardinals went through six hurlers.

These teams split six 2010 meetings, with the Giants winning two of the three bouts held at AT&T Park. St. Louis has lost in six of its last eight tries in San Francisco.