Giants pitcher Matt Cain was a “DNP — Sandwich” on Tuesday night in San Francisco.
Cain was scheduled to start for the Giants against the San Diego Padres, but he sliced his finger open while fixing himself a snack before the game. The right-hander was able to swing the bat, according to CSNBayArea.com, but pitching was out of the question.
“There would’ve been blood all over the ball,” Cain said.
Yusmeiro Petit was forced to take Cain’s spot in the rotation on a little more than an hour’s notice, and he filled in admirably, tossing six shutout innings in a 6-0 Giants win.
“I go to Cain and said, ‘What happened, man?’” Giants catcher Hector Sanchez said after the game. “Then I go to Petit and said, ‘Hey my friend, what signs are we going to use with a runner on second (base)?’ That’s all we talked about before the game.”
Cain is far from the first major leaguer to go down with a bizarre injury during the season (spring training alone annually produces a laundry list of unlikely ailments). In fact, he’s not even the first current member of the San Francisco rotation to be victimized during food preparation.
Jeremy Affeldt required season-ending surgery in 2011 after a failed attempt to separate frozen hamburger patties resulted in nerve damage in his hand. Cain surely will be hearing some smack talk from the veteran lefty in the coming weeks.
“Oh, I was the first one to visit him,” Affeldt said. “Welcome to the club. He’s made fun of me for three straight years.”
