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ByAndrewBaggarly BayAreaNewsGroup SAN FRANCISCO Bruce Bochy owns a vast library of books on leadership and motivation. At times over his managerial career, he has recited Bible stories to his team and screened inspirational movie clips. He has attempted to use hu- mor to fumigate the growing panic in a room. He has gotten mad. Mostly, though, he always remembers to treat his players as people, and to show unwavering faith in them. That is what Bochy is doing now, even as the knot continued to slip in a 6-5 loss to the Pitts- burgh Pirates on Wednesday. The Giants handed Matt Cain a four-run lead and Cain handed it back, plus two more, in a fifth inning that might represent the lowest recession for a team that had baseball's best record at the All-Star break and has its worst following it. A ninth-inning rally might have shown the Giants' gumption, but it was false hope to another groaning sellout crowd. They loaded the bases with no outs against Pirates closer Tony Wat- son and scored a run on Buster Posey's double-play grounder. Then Brandon Crawford, who drove in three of their first four runs, popped up to center field and the Giants (66-54) were swept in the three-game series and fell to 9-21 since the break. It was their sixth loss this sea- son in a game when they held a lead of four runs or more. Not only is that the most in the major leagues, but it's more than the Gi- ants had blown in their previous two seasons combined. Bochy acknowledged some fault in Wednesday's loss. He said he stuck with Cain too long. "Obviously I stuck with him there. … Probably stuck a little too long there, to be honest," Bo- chy said. "I felt he had enough to get through it. It didn't play out. It's a tough one." What's worse, Cain didn't even make the Pirates earn it. They scoredtheirsixrunsonjusttwohits. Cain hit a batter, issued three walks, including one to backup catcher Eric Fryer with the bases loaded, then lost the lead after giving up a two-run single and a sacrifice fly. Andrew McCutchen completed the demolition with a two-run home run on Cain's first- pitch fastball. Cain's inning was a micro- cosm for the Giants' inexplicable slide. Like the team, Cain started with promise and success. He re- tired 12 of 13 batters over the first four innings, with only opposing pitcher Ivan Nova sneaking a sin- gle. Then, suddenly, he had no feel for the strike zone and there was no fixing the issue. "Definitely with everything go- ing on, we didn't need that to hap- pen today," Cain said. "It's a bad job by me." NATIONAL LEAGUE Giants swept at home by Pirates Cain, San Francisco can't hold four-run lead COURTESYPHOTOBYLARRYLONG The Bulldogs' Rachel Rogers goes up for a shot Tuesday in a preseason match against the Williams Yellowjackets in Los Molinos. By Chip Thompson editor@redbluffdailynews.com @editorchip on Twitter LOS MOLINOS The Lady Bulldogs got the 2016 cam- paign off to a strong start, beating the visiting Wil- liams Yellowjackets in straight sets to open the preseason. The Bulldogs dominated in the opening set, taking it 25-11. In the second set it was a bit closer, but the Bulldogs went away with the win at 25-18. The Yel- lowjackets got into stride for the third set, but the Bulldogs pulled out the 25- 22 win. Standouts for the Bull- dogs were junior Rachel Rogers, who had 12 kills, 4 aces and 3 digs; Liset Cas- tillo with 8 kills, 4 aces and 9 digs; Henna Acevedo with 2 kills, 8 aces and 5 digs and sophomore Gene- sis Acevedo with 2 kills, an ace, a block and 4 digs. The Bulldogs, who went 27-17 overall in 2015 to fin- ish second in the Five Star League, will travel to Chico on Friday to face CORE Butte at 5:30 p.m. Entering the 2015 post season as the No. 1 seed, the Bulldogs lost in 3 sets to the No. 5 Durham Tro- jans in the semi-final round at home. VOLLEYBALL Bu ll do gs o pe n pr es ea so n with win over Williams Yellowjackets make it a contest but lose in three sets LOSMOLINOSPRESEASON Set 1: 25-11, Bulldogs Set 2: 25-18, Bulldogs Set 3: 25-22, Bulldogs Up next: Bulldogs at CORE Butte. When: Chico, 5:30p.m. THESCORE By Brian Mahoney The Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO The nail-biters ended for the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team. So did a golden era of inter- national basketball. Emphatically ending a stretch of three straight close games, the Americans advanced to the semifinals by sprinting past Manu Ginobili and Argentina, 105-78 on Wednesday night. In front of a chanting, flag- waving crowd of Argentines who came to throw a raucous farewell party for their Golden Generation, the Americans de- livered their most complete per- formance in Rio. "What a remarkable run by Argentina and so we knew we had to match that energy to- night. I thought we did," U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said. Turning a slow start into an early ending with a 27-2 run in the first half, the Americans put away one old rival and set up a meeting with another. They will play Spain on Friday in a re- match of the last two gold-medal games. Kevin Durant scored 27 points for the Americans, who had played three straight close games for the first time under Krzyzewski, setting off a round of questions at home and in Rio de Janeiro about what was wrong with them. The answer might be nothing. At least there wasn't against Ar- gentina. "We wanted to come out and our whole thing was dominat- ing," forward Carmelo Anthony said. The Americans eliminated Argentina for the third straight OLYMPICS: MEN'S BASKETBALL US routs Argentina, moves into semifinals By Chip Thompson editor@redbluffdailynews.com @editorchip on Twitter CORNING The Cardinals haven't had much trouble making the playoffs in recent years, but this year the focus is on getting past the first round. "The goal is to get over that hump and advance in the play- offs," said coach John Studer at Tuesday's practice. "We need to get past that first game on the road and that starts with a bet- ter regular season record, which means a better seed." With a 5-1 home record in 2015, the Cardinals struggled on the road, where they went 1-5. They lost in the first round of the play- offs, 49-10 to West Valley in Cot- tonwood. In the absence of the dominant play of Alex Davila, who put up 1,563 yards and scored 21 touch- downs on the ground in 2015, Studer said the team will move to a Wing T formation led by run- ning back Cole Parker. "We'll have a young team," Studer said. "We'll have a lot of juniors playing and contributing." The change will mean spread- ing the ball around to a number of players in the backfield and lever- aging Parker's versatility. Parker had 247 yards on 43 carries and 2 touchdowns in 2015, but also pulled in 7 receptions for 119 yards and 3 touchdowns. "It will mean a lot of guys go- ing a lot of different directions," Studer said. Devin Wunch will be taking snaps for the Cardinals. In 2015 he threw for 88 yards and 2 touch- downs with 1 interception before injuring his ACL in against Red Bluff in week 3. Oscar Garcia will be a threat in the backfield and in the slot, PREP FOOTBALL CARDINALS AIM FOR DEEPER PLAYOFF RUN Young team looks to play better on road and will rely on juniors, running back Parker PHOTOS BY CHIP THOMPSON - DAILY NEWS Players perform tackling drills Tuesday at a Corning Cardinals practice. Defensive Coordinator Josh Mason coaches players Tuesday at a Corning Cardinals practice. FOOTBALL PAGE 2 OLYMPICS PAGE 2 ERIC RISBERG — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain was removed from the game by manager Bruce Bochy in the fi h inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday. SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, August 18, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1