By Jeremy Kahn

AP photo: San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain is greeted by teammates in the dugout in the sixth inning on Saturday at AT&T Park

SAN FRANCISCO-Matt Cain picked up a couple of firsts in his latest start for the San Francisco Giants.

Cain earned his first win of the season, and first since July 22, 2015 against the San Diego Padres, as the Giants defeated the Chicago Cubs 5-3 before a crowd of 41,507, the 431st consecutive regular season sellout at AT&T Park.

It was the first win for Cain in his last 15 starts, and is now 1-1 with 1.71 earned run average with 17 strikeouts over his last three starts.

Not only Cain help himself on the mound in getting that elusive first win of the season, but he drove in the Giants first two runs of the game with a two-run double in the bottom of the second inning. Cain’s double off of Jon Lester put an end to a 46 at-bat hit less streak, the longest such streak in the National League.

Cain went six innings, allowing just one run on six hits, walking two and striking out five, as his earned run average lowered a half a run from 5.87 to 5.37.

Following the Cain double that gave the Giants a 2-0 lead, Kris Bryant cut the lead in half with one swing of the bat, when he took a Cain offering over the centerfield wall for his second home run in as many days and his ninth of the season.

The Giants broke the game open in the bottom of the third inning, as Buster Posey, who was mired in a 8-for-52 slump over his last 13 games hit a two-run home run that sent the sellout crowd into a frenzy. Following the Posey home run to left field, Matt Duffy singled to left field and promptly stole second. Trevor Brown then singled in Duffy, but was thrown out by Jorge Soler as he tried to stretch a single into a double. Originally, Brown was called by second base umpire Dana DeMuth; however Cubs manager Joe Maddon challenged the call and after a 2:10 review, the call was reversed.

After Brown was thrown out for the second out of the inning, Lester promptly walked Brandon Crawford and that was the end of the day for Lester.

In his shortest outing of the season, Lester lasted just 2.2 innings, allowing five runs on six hits, walking two and striking out just one and saw his minuscule earned run average of 1.88 entering the game increase to 2.60.

The five earned runs allowed by Lester were the most that he allowed since August 29, 2015 against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.

This was also the shortest outing by Lester since he went 2.2 innings on August 19, 2015 against the Detroit Tigers at Wrigley Field.

Despite trailing 5-1 entering the top of the eighth inning, the Cubs would not go away, as Soler doubled with one out off of Josh Osich and then the first batter that Cory Gearrin faces, Javier Baez singled in Soler.

With the tying run at the plate and two outs, Bruce Bochy called in Javier Lopez and the veteran left-hander responded, as Tim Federowicz to strikeout swinging to end the inning. Originally, Miguel Montero was announced to pinch hit against Gearrin; however that is when Bochy called upon his left-handed setup man and Federowicz struck out.

Santiago Casilla came in to close the game, but the Cubs cut the lead down to two runs after Dexter Fowler led the inning with a solo home run onto the right field arcade.

Casilla, who last pitched on Wednesday night against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park was able to re-group and retire Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist in succession to end the game. It was the 11th save of the season for Casilla.