|
|
|
|
|
Giants can’t survive Lincecum’s rough outing
By Jeremy Harness May 26, 2010 |
||
|
|
|||
|
SAN FRANCISCO - Most of the time, all Tim Lincecum needs is two or three runs from his batsmen in order to deliver a victory. But he needed a lot more than that on Wednesday night, to go along with a few more pitches called his way. In the early innings, Lincecum couldn’t get a strike call to save his life, as he walked three batters in the first two innings and wound up with more balls - some of them looked like certain strikes - than strikes in that span. What followed was a collective battering of the bite-sized ace righty by the Washington Nationals. When it was all added up, Lincecum was tagged with six earned runs and was around for only 4 2/3 innings, and by the time the offense finally got things in the right direction, it was too late and not nearly enough in a 7-3 loss at AT&T Park, as Lincecum’s unbeaten streak came to a crashing end. “It’s completely frustrating,” Lincecum said, referring to the maintain the control of his pitches that he is accustomed to. “But at the same time, we’ve got a lot of games. I don’t want to beat myself up over it. I’ve got plenty of other outings to go through. “But I’m going to try to go back to the chalkboard and try to figure it out.” Lincecum, as well as Giants manager Bruce Bochy, maintained that the pitcher’s woes are just a lack of control and nothing else. Contrary to reports that he was having problems with a blister on his throwing hand, Bochy said it was a “non-issue.” “We won’t pitch him with a blister, so he’s fine,” Bochy said. Despite the walks, Lincecum (5-1) was able to keep the Nationals off the scoreboard in the first two frames, but the gate was flung open in the third with three runs. Leadoff man Nyler Morgan started it off with a sharp single and then quickly stole second before Adam Kennedy singled to bring him in. After Lincecum struck out Washington’s best hitter, Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Dunn hit a grounder to short that Pablo Sandoval, playing there as the Giants shifted their infield to the right side, seemingly had plenty of time to throw him out. However, Sandoval looked to make a play at second to get Kennedy, and by the time he fired to first, Dunn, not exactly known as a burner on the bases, beat the throw. That especially hurt because the next batter, Josh Willingham, lined a double that scored both runners and put the Giants in a 3-0 hole. It only got worse. Aided by two walks, a hit batsman and two stolen bases, the Nationals scored three more times in the fifth, the big hit coming by way of Ian Desmond’s bloop single into shallow right that brought in a pair of runs and forced Bochy to rescue Lincecum. “He was out of sync, there’s no getting around that,” Bochy said. “He’s going through a stretch here right now where he’s struggling getting the ball where he wants. As good as he is, he’s going to have his stretches.” The Giants got something going in the bottom half of that inning, thanks to a leadoff homer by Juan Uribe, and it looked more promising when Bengie Molina followed it with a double. However, Molina was left stranded at third after two groundouts and a flyout. They also scored a run in the sixth and seventh innings, but they also stranded runners in both of them. In all, the Giants left four runners in scoring position on Wednesday, which also happens to be the run differential in the game. |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||