By: Joe Lami

AP photo: San Francisco Giants starter Matt Cain walks off the mound in the fifth inning after being lifted by Giants manager Bruce Bochy facing the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night at AT&T Park

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—For the eighth time since the All-Star break, the San Francisco Giants have lost a series opener. On Friday night, it was the Baltimore Orioles that came into AT&T Park and dismantled pitcher Matt Cain in a 5-2 victory.

Cain suffered his first loss in his last four outings, lasting only four-plus innings while surrendering five runs on 11 hits. Cain mercilessly struck out seven in the loss. From the get-go,  Cain struggled; leaving balls over the plate and the surging Orioles made him pay.

Three of Baltimore’s runs came off homers. Two of which came on a 2-2 count when Mark Trumbo blasted a shot through the cool San Francisco sky that nearly cleared the left field bleachers, landing in the second to top row. Trumbo’s league-leading 33rd homerun of the campaign made it 4-0 O’s.

Cain’s outing came to an end on his 87th pitch in the 5th inning, when Chris Davis snuck the ball over the left field wall for an opposite field homer, marking his 24th big fly of the season.

“He just didn’t have good command of his fastball tonight. Left too many over the plate and that’s a good-hitting ball club,” said Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy.

San Francisco continues to be the worst team in baseball since the break, losing for the 17th time in just 25 games. Part of the problem is the pitching staff being able to keep the ball in the park, as collectively Giants’ pitchers have given up 37 homers since the break.

The bullpen performed well, as George Kontos and Jake Peavy finished out the contest giving up zero hits in five innings.

San Francisco’s runs came in the third and the ninth, as Dernard Span doubled to right center in the third to cut the lead to 4-1. Brandon Belt eased the pain of the loss singling in Pagan to make it 5-2

Luckily for San Francisco, the Dodgers lost to Pittsburg on Friday night as well, keeping their one-game lead in the NL West.

The Giants need to take advantage of their next nine games at AT&T and hope to get back on track Saturday with Madison Bumgarner taking the mound against Kevin Gausman, who has just won three games this season.