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Cain looks to help Giants bounce back vs. A's

May 19, 2007 - 3:23 PM San Francisco (20-21) at Oakland (21-20) 9:05 pm EDT

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- The San Francisco Giants hope for a better result in the second game of a interleague series against Bay Area rivals the Oakland Athletics on Saturday.

Mark Ellis hit a grand slam and drove in five runs as Oakland blasted former pitcher Barry Zito and the Giants in Friday's series opener, 15-3.

In his first outing against his former club, Zito was anything but effective, lasting just four-plus innings for his shortest performance of the campaign.

"I was just missing," Zito said. "I walked four guys in the first. Those guys were taking a lot of pitches, good pitches just off the plate, just out of the zone. You've got to hand it to them, their approach showed through."

Taking the hill Saturday for San Francisco will be 22-year-old Matt Cain (2-3, 3.18 ERA), who is coming off a stellar outing last time out. He yielded one run and struck out six in six innings of a 15-2 win at Colorado on Sunday.

The righthander has posted a 1-1 mark with a 4.05 ERA in last two outings when facing the A's.

Oakland's Dan Haren (3-2, 1.64) goes for his first triumph in four starts. Most recently, Haren struck out eight batters in eight scoreless frames but did not figure in the decision of a 2-1 loss to Kansas City on Monday.

The American League leader in ERA, the righthander is 2-3 with a 3.79 ERA in seven career appearances - six starts - against San Francisco.

Randy Winn hopes to extend his hitting streak to 18 games while teammate Barry Bonds remains homerless in his last eight games for the Giants, who has dropped three of four games overall.