Nowadays,Tim Lincecum always seems to keep his adoring fans on the edge of their seats , generally expecting an agonizing adventure. Not today, not even close. In his fifth start of 2015, he delivered a commanding 8 inning performance (game score 79!!) that left no doubt as the Giants swept away the hapless Angels, 5-0. It wasn't the blow them away god of yester year, more the cagey, ground ball artist hitting his spots. Hell, he set down the last 9 men in order. That is hella sweet! Add to that 2 hits and a walk for his own cause and Timmeh must be feeling pretty good about now.
I can't recall seeing back to back lead off homers before. Aoki and Panik poked a couple into the arcade before I could sip my game beer. Truly a fun way to start a game. It was amazing to see Weaver look so weak and hittable. Didn't he win 18 games last year? What happened? His fastball made Lincecum's look like Gibson.
We are 12-13 now, after that stanky start. I really love May. And I think we should only play teams from LA.
5 comments:
And what's so bad about a cagey, ground ball artist hitting his spots? He can do that, winning a lot of games, as a Giant, for years and years. He is, after all, still a young man.
I wouldn't say I'm "generally expecting an agonizing adventure" when Tim is on the hill, but I get what you are saying. He certainly has shown us everything from wretched to transcendent in his career. I'm excited by what I see in 2015 so far. I don't see why he can't keep it up. It's a bad idea to underestimate outliers, weirdos, mutants, oddballs, and freaks. Timmy is his own man, a unique athlete and performer who seems to defy categorization. I hope he stays with the Giants forever.
Amen, MC, amen!
I do not get fans sometimes. They love the player when all is sunshine and strikeouts, but dump him without viewing him objectively. So I love your sentiment here about staying here forever.
After all, look what he has done for us. Many begrudge his last contract, but that was just a mortgage payment for the thrills, and the championships he was instrumental in bringing to us, who was bereft and saddened by past failures. If he was headed straight into the ground with no signs of skill, that would be one thing, much as we are experiencing so far with Vogie the past few seasons.
But Lincecum has been dominating in extended stretches, which suggested that he had the skill inherent, he just was not executing them consistently. Then we found out the reason why: he was wearing his big boy pants and not working with his Dad since 2009! So one would think that was the final piece of the puzzle.
Not that we know for certain. Much like the other AA, it is a day by day, start by start, existence of success or failure. His only real blip was the Coors game, but then, it was a Coors game, a funhouse mirror venue that bring even the best pitchers to their knees, and sometimes makes ordinary pitchers into aces, inexplicably, like Zito. So, so far so good for Sir Tim-alott. Hopefully he can continue this all season.
This was the first time in a little over a year that Lincecum was caught by Posey. He threw more fastballs than usual and located them well, down and side to side.
OGC makes a good point. This is from SB Nation's Amazin' Avenue: "San Francisco also has big problems in its starting rotation as Tim Lincecum and Ryan Vogelsong have struggled early this season." To be fair, this was written before yesterday's start. This is from today's Chronicle about yesterday's game: "Lincecum has been as inconsistent as the team. He’s on a good-bad-good-bad-good run, allowing seven earned runs over nine innings in two rough starts against the Rockies and Dodgers but holding the Padres, Dodgers and Angels to one run over 21 innings in the three good ones."
So the perception is that Lincecum, on the heels of an 8 inning shutout, is struggling, which is, if you think about it, just bizarre. So he gave up 4 runs in 4 innings in LA and gave up 3 earned runs (4 runs) in 5 innings in Colorado. Rather than good/bad/good/bad/good, I'd call it excellent/bad but we've seen worse/excellent/not so good but what the fuck, anything can happen in Colorado/excellent. The guy is sporting a 2.40 era, what more do you want? I guess because it is Tim Lincecum, if he is not blowing people away with strikeouts, it doesn't count. How bad was his era before yesterday? A lofty 3.27. I for one, am pretty encouraged. We have 4 pitchers throwing pretty well right now. Getting 8 out of Lincecum (on the heels of 8 out of Hudson) is just huge. We have Madbum on the mound tonight and can be a .500 team after an 8 game losing streak.
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