Like my crappy reproduction, the photo itself suffers from poor detail resolution. However, even the overall view provides contextual evidence. The 6 championship flags flying above the scoreboard indicate a game subsequent to Opening Day 2011; both the amount of time necessary to produce such a product and the absence of the flag in right field, however, suggest that this game must have taken place before Opening Day 2013. This 2 year window dramatically limits the possibilities. Let's dig deeper.
We clearly have a Giant on the mound and opposing batters both at the plate and on deck. I would recognize the pitcher anywhere: staff ace and longest-tenured Giant Matt Cain. Precious little else is apparent, beyond there being a right-handed batter at bat and a leftie on deck. The dark away jerseys limit the range of possible opponents, but offer no clear identification.
The scoreboard verified Cain's identity and clearly enough demonstrated that the Pirates were in town. A quick glance at Cain's recent pitching record showed only one home game started against the Pirates at home between the Opening Days of 2011 and 2013: Friday, April 13, 2012. All subsequent details merely erased any lingering doubt.
The scoreboard shows a count of 1 ball and 2 strikes with no one out in the fifth inning. The first batter Cain faced in the fifth inning on 4/13/12 was first baseman Casey McGehee, a right-handed hitter. As expected, on deck was right fielder Garrett Jones, a left-handed hitter. (Note the two bats on opposite shoulders.) Though McGahee's name remains more difficult to read, Jones's name in the five spot in the order can be clearly identified along the right side of the scoreboard, which always lists the away team at AT&T Park.
The strikeout counter lists four strikeouts by Giants' pitching prior to this batter in the game; furthermore, the K's are all forwards, indicating that all third strikes were registered on swings and misses. (In scorekeeping shorthand, a backwards K represents a third strike called by the umpire on a batter who didn't swing.) On April 13, prior to McGahee's at bat in the fifth inning, Cain had struck out Alex Presley and Neil Walker in the first inning, followed by Jones in the second and Pedro Alvarez in the third - all swinging. The final piece of evidence came from the only other score clearly visible in the photo:
...a 12-2 victory of the Boston Red Sox over the Tampa Bay Rays that ended at 2:28pm Pacific Time on 4/13. Based on the spot in the game, I guessed that the photo had probably been taken at about 2:35pm. My accurate guess made it more palatable to have apparently forgotten that most ballparks feature large clocks that make that kind of conjecture unnecessary:
So what happened after the photo was taken? Though the next pitch to McGahee was a ball, he would strike out on the fifth pitch of the at bat, and Jones would soon follow suit - again, both swinging. Cain went on to strike out 11 en route to a 5-0 win in a complete game, 106-pitch shutout (video here, with McGahee striking out at around 1:45). He surrendered only one hit, a weak 6th inning grounder by pitcher James McDonald that found a hole on the 3rd base side. McDonald would turn out to also be the only Pirates baserunner. Cain's superlative performance was outshadowed precisely 2 months later, when he surrendered one fewer baserunner in tossing the 22nd perfect game in Major League history, and the first in the monumental history of the franchise. It's this (slightly) lesser masterpiece, though, that will proudly adorn my walls, courtesy of Target - frozen forever in plywood, formaldehyde, and glory.
