Almost as if it was predestined, Tim Lincecum stopped the current losing streak with a commanding 4-1 victory over the powerful St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards are clearly a team that can contend and they are off to a blistering start (10-5 before tonight). Our beloved Giants are limping home after an anemic 1-5 road trip that included never-before-seen ways to fail in scoring situations. But you knew we were going to win. Everybody pretty much did.
That brings me to my clever "sub-topic." Superstars of Tim's stature bring with them incredible expectations. Remember the glory days of Barry? You knew what was coming almost every day. It was exhilarating. Now we have a new Superstar and a new set of expectations. I took it upon myself to make a little checklist of what I've come to expect out of Tim. Let's see how he did tonight:
QUALITY START: Check. Seven innings and one earned run. That was the first run the Cardinals have got off Tim since April '08, a stretch of 25 innings.
LOVELY K/BB STATS: Check, but not his best. Eight strikeouts and three walks. In his three previous starts he had three walks, so you can see he was a bit wild. He seemed to rein in the velocity but never seemed to really control the fastball.
VERY FEW HARD HIT BALLS: Definitely a check. Six hits total; five singles and one double ( by Pujols with 2 outs that didn't score). The lone run came off an infield hit, stolen base, and a close play at home after a single. Remember, this was against a slugging team, too.
TRANSCENDENTAL MOMENTS: You know what I mean? Those times when you shake your head and gawk at the kid's ability to elevate his game at will. Even though tonight's effort wasn't pretty and seemed a struggle start to finish, I still spied one such moment. Early in the game as the Giants clung to a one run lead, Tim gave up a leadoff single (GASP!) and then a four pitch walk (WTF!). Now he had to face Pujols and Holliday, which is just about as scary as it gets. On the second pitch to Albert: a weak popup to second! Then, on a 3-0 pitch, Tim gets Holliday to ground into a double play (only the fifth one we've turned this year). I must admit I never really expect Tim to get a DP but I knew he'd do something.
Admit it, didn't you? What have you come to expect from The Freak?
8 comments:
I'm pretty new to the team compared to everyone else on here, but I've been expecting a win and so far that's what's been happening. It's good to be almost guaranteed a win every fifth day. sigh. They should just use 4 starters, that way we have the so far very effective 1-2-3-4 punch of Timmeh, Zito, Matty, and JSanchez until a viable 5th starter comes. I know that many teams have a 5th starter who is not much better than Wellemeyer, but last year Randy Johnson was in the mix. Wellemeyer is really dragging the team down. He is like Anti-Timmeh. We're almost guaranteed a loss every fifth day 8(
I expect to be watching the best pitcher currently on the planet. Whenever he gets in a relative amount of trouble he always bears down and gets the big outs. He has a good variety of pitches and uses them all effectively.
I dug the orange jersies. They look so lame, it's cool.
Hey, Anonymous, no emoticons allowed @ RMC :P
Tim makes me :-).
I liked the whiff of Pujols on the third time through! Boooo-yahhhh! Romo whiffed the Big Fella as well.
Tim did not have his usual command but he still got OUTS. He just gets outs and more outs. We were lucky it wasn't 1-1 when he left the game. The Cards gave us 3 runs with sloppy play--2 E including a blown DP and 1 WP--otherwise we would have been hard-pressed to score. I was happy to see Torres get a hit and have another good AB later (he's waaaaay better against lefties). Great win, nonetheless.
What's an emoticon? I just typed an 8 and a parenthesis.
BTW my " Let Timmy Smoke " t-shirt is a perfect 4-0. Hey MOC, did you wear yours yesterday?
Wore shirt?
Check.
Will always wear shirt when Tim pitches?
Check.
Use emoticons?
;-)
You know I was kidding right? Or are you just countering my sarcasm with more sarcasm? If so, then d^_^b
WOOOOOOOOOOOoooo that was great!
Post a Comment