If you had a dollar for every Giant who praised Lincecum for how much he "battled,'' you might have enough coin to afford a Game 2 box seat, even at scalper's prices. It says a lot about his character to be able to maintain his composure after a rough first couple of innings. You're not going to have a dominant performance every time out. It just can't happen. But for you to trust in your hitters and say, 'I'm not going to let this get to me,' that says a lot about a guy.
That's our ace. All the math weighed against Lincecum in this one. He finished with three strikeouts Wednesday -- only the fourth time in 37 starts this season that he's whiffed fewer than four batters in a game.
And he allowed the opposition to score at least one run in each of the first two innings for the first time since June 27 against Boston. Lincecum failed to last six innings in only nine of his 33 regular-season starts, and the Giants went and he posted a record of in those games. Lincecum bore little or no resemblance to the guy who began the postseason with 14 strikeouts in a National League Division Series win over Atlanta.
But the one thing he didn't lack was composure. You just go out there and try to keep yourself collected. You ask yourself, 'Am I going to have time to settle down? Is our team going to score? Lincecum's outlook wasn't so serene at the outset, when things were more chaotic than a weekend at Charlie Sheen's place. Where the Rangers are concerned, certain transgressions are bound to get you in trouble.
It's clear, for example, that leadoff man Elvis Andrus is Texas' resident energizer, and that he's guaranteed to lift the spirits of his teammates and up the ante when he gets on base. On the third pitch of the game, Andrus lined a single to left field for a base hit. Bad omen No. Then Lincecum compounded his problems by walking Michael Young , and when Vlad Guerrero singled off Lincecum's shin, Texas had a lead.
Things could have been worse -- or better, depending on your perspective. Lincecum fielded a Nelson Cruz comebacker and trapped Young in a rundown for what should have been the second out, but he lost track of the situation and allowed Young to scamper back to third to load the bases.
That was Lincecum's "brain fart'' for the evening. But he induced Ian Kinsler to hit into a double-play grounder to end the inning, and it gave him a chance to collect himself.
The next inning was dicey, too. But that's when Lincecum went into lockdown mode, retiring nine of 10 Texas hitters over the next three innings to buy the San Francisco lineup some time to get to Lee. Write your answer Related questions. What is the birth name of Tim Lincecum? Is Tim lincecum Jewish? Does Tim Lincecum have kids?
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How many games did Tim Lincecum win in ? While it may not be an issue he is concerned with at the moment, it will start infiltrating his thought process as he starts to think about his legacy in the game. How many wins you gonna get.
I know the new sabermetrics, wins are overrated. You need to win. You pitch, your team needs to win. It's an argument that has merit, and Brian Sabean had better address it in the offseason. There is little reason for Lincecum to agree to a long-term extension until he sees the Giants start putting the pieces around him that will give him the support he needs to compete for a game season.
Any more dominant pitching performances where allowing one earned run still ends up in a loss may start to wear on "Timmy. Trading for Carlos Beltran at the trade deadline was a good move had he not got injured , but Lincecum deserves that kind of hitting power in the lineup. Papa added, "You can make the Hall of Fame without winning, but the reason the Red Sox and Yankees get all those guys is because they offer you the chance to pitch in the playoffs and pitch in the World Series, and that's what Lincecum wants.
A one-two combination of Sabathia, Lincecum, or vice-versa, is enough to make most teams quake. A second World Series title would go a long way to building the case that Lincecum is one of those rare generational players that could end his entire career in a Giants uniform.
Ultimately there will come a time where he will start thinking about what he could accomplish if he jumped ship and joined an organization that would give him the opportunity to consistently win 20 games and provide the kind of run support he deserves. This offseason, Sabean will need to start by putting together a lineup that can support his already-impressive starting rotation. Once he has begun to address that issue, he needs to do his best to find a way to avoid a second arbitration process with Lincecum or risk losing his superstar after to free agency.
He's already started. While it generated little press, the Giants just signed their second-round pick in the player draft, Andrew Susac, a catcher with an above-average arm and plus-power at the plate see the end of the article , as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle's Bruce Jenkins in Saturday's edition. As much as he enjoys playing in San Francisco, he may jump at an opportunity to secure his place in Cooperstown while collecting rings with another franchise.
And not shaking his head as he looks at his box-score from the night before, resulting in another one-run loss. As Papa summarized in his talk with Lund, "There's a point in time when you have to make a business decision [not] for your bank account, for your legacy. The deal that Lincecum arrives at spring training with in will tell us a lot about the direction of the franchise beyond the coming two seasons.
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