In the middle of a dark, dark month (don't say the "S" word), Tim Lincecum delivered a ray of light and hope with his second career no hitter. The helpless Padres never actually got close to getting a hit and only came up with one walk. He set down the last TWENTY THREE in order! It was practically economical with a paltry 113 pitches, compared to 148 last time. I'm still a little in shock, not so much about the feat as much as how he achieved it. It was so smooth and in control. Shit, he even got TWO HITS and SCORED TWO RUNS!
Dude had a very good day. I'm going to go listen, read and soak up the moment. Tim is on the air right now! Talk it up folks!
9 comments:
Man, it's been too long, so here goes:
BIG TIME TIMMY-JIM!!!!
Wow. What a special day and what a great lift for the club. Kershaw threw that near-perfecto last week and it was like he and the Dodgers were throwing down the gauntlet, so it is awesome that our guy responded. Plus he got two hits and scored two runs!
Fabulous. Outstanding. Wonderful. Marvelous. Beautiful. Way to go, Tim Lincecum!
GO GIANTS!
Naturally, I have to take credit for this. Amazing! I like so many things:
- Pitch count!
- One baserunner ... one!
- Two different Catchers for two different No-Hitters!
- One on the road, one at home!
- One at night, one during the day!
- Got two base hits!
- Joe Panik got the final assist!
- Buster 4-for-4!
We're talking assault on Nolan Ryan here ... why not?
I had a very high level of confidence after the sixth inning or so. He didn't get the K's like before but this one was better. We also NEEDED this one !!!
Last team with three no hitters in three years was Angels and Nolan Ryan doing them all.
I was really stoked for Hector Sanchez. He has to play in the shadow of Buster Posey and has gotten his share of criticism for not being able to do the job at that level. For him to be part of this performance has to be great for the ballclub. The Giants need Hanchez, they need to be confident in him and he needs to deliver more consistently. He got the only RBI that mattered today!
I'm baffled by Lincecum. He seems to be able to summon greatness, not exactly "at will," but randomly, like in '12 when he was pretty bad most of the year then morphed into great relief pitcher when it counted in the post-season. This season and last he's mostly pretty crappy, then he comes up with no-hitters.
I can't wait to see what he does next.
Big Time Timmy Jim! The Franchise comes through again. And that's the threat when it gets to the short games.
BBob, Tim has been transitioning from thrower to pitcher. Pitchers rely more on defense, by inducing crappy contact, but while learning this, he has not been perfect, giving up hard contact with his mistakes. On top of that, pitchers are more at the whims of the BABIP gods, hence the randomness of the good and the bad, it is like combining many sine waves together, and you get these weird ups and downs, I think.
The positives I take is that he did this in a lot less pitches and especially less walks, compared to his first no no. Before, he could over power and fool hitters, but he was also that term, effectively wild, so he would give up walks and sometimes that wildness puts the ball into the hitters happy spot, which started happening a lot more often as he got slower. But this season, he has made a concerted effort to reduce walks and to pitch to crappy contact, not always successful, but he is learning, and this game shows some of the good progress he has made this season.
I am very encouraged that the Giants made the right bet in resigning him despite most publicly visible signs being that he was not worth the money. And yes, I can not wait to see what he does next too, he could become a pitcher like Big Daddy, lots of good games plus some stinkers that kill his WHIP and ERA.
Oh and plus, he is finally learning hitters tendencies, so he is avoiding putting the ball into the hitters happy spot, I have to credit him finally studying hitters pre game with Posey for this, and for that I am grateful to Gaudin for breaking thru to him and getting Tim to do this. And that makes no hitters possible for Tim now.
I hope we keep seeing this approach from Tim. We'll see--it's hard for guys to change what made them successful in the first place. But if you want to last in the bigs you have to adapt and grow. Matt Cain seems to be at that tipping point in his career as well. He has to re-discover some of his focus and intensity, it seems, and add some variation to his game. Some of the things he used to do--like get strikeouts and pop flies with his high fastball--don't seem to work as well these days. I'm hoping he can find his mojo soon, like tonight!
Post a Comment