Giants complete sweep of Bucs

July 30, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — So long the hard-luck pitcher with little run support, Matt Cain suddenly doesn’t need much.

He’s been that dominant.

Cain pitched nine scoreless innings but settled for a no-decision. He didn’t mind considering San Francisco’s result.

Randy Winn lined an RBI single down the first-base line with two outs in the 10th inning and the Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0 on Wednesday for a three-game sweep on the heels of a 3-7 road trip.

“It was huge for us and we definitely needed it,” Cain said.

After Cain’s impressive outing, Brian Wilson (3-4) worked the 10th for the victory. This marked the Giants’ first sweep of the Pirates in their waterfront ballpark since July 31-Aug. 2, 2001.

San Francisco scored against Matt Capps (2-6), and Eugenio Velez got it started with a leadoff single. He was sacrificed to second and scored on Winn’s lone hit in five at-bats and his first walkoff hit since Aug. 6, 2007.

The Pirates lost their fifth straight to finish a 1-7 road trip.

“Matt was awesome today,” San Francisco skipper Bruce Bochy said. “He went up there and threw another gem. We won the game because of him even though he didn’t get the win.”

Cain, named an NL All-Star but unable to participate because of an arm injury, struck out four and walked two in an impressive 111-pitch outing. He missed a chance at his 13th win, which would match his career high also done during his standout rookie season in 2006. He hasn’t lost in six starts since a June 26 defeat at Milwaukee.

“I don’t know if anything’s different,” he said. “I’m just trying to take that little step of improvement of being more focused, and I think that’s what has helped me a ton.”

After going 0 for 4 in his Giants debut Tuesday night, first baseman Ryan Garko had his first hit for his new club with a second-inning single. Garko came to San Francisco from Cleveland in a trade Monday.

Pirates left-hander Zach Duke hung tough with Cain, working out of some tough jams to keep the game scoreless. The Giants squandered scoring chances in the second, fourth, fifth and seventh innings.

But Duke failed to pick up his team-leading 10th win, which would match his career high from 2006.

“It’s a tough one. Matt Cain was on top of his game again,” Duke said. “I had to be [equally sharp] to match up with him to give us a chance, so thankfully it was as good of a game as it was.”