May 27 2009
Lincecum shows off his Cy Young form in the Giants victory over Braves…
Lincecum is 4-1 now with a 3.o3 E.R.A. in 2009.
Tim Lincecum has built a 24-1 record in 41 starts when the Giants score at least three runs for him. The latest instance of this was Tuesday night’s 4-0 triumph over the Atlanta Braves, which featured eight efficient innings from Lincecum.Moreover, Lincecum was dominant in his outing against the Atlanta Braves Tuesday night. Lincecum showed off his 2008 Cy Young Form in this spectacular performance as he picked up his 4th victory in the 2009 campaign. Lincecum went 8 shutout innings, throwing 122 pitches and had 8 strikeouts to only 2 walks in the win. His 8 strikeouts leave him one shy of the big 500 for his young career. That shouldn’t be hard to reach 500 in his next start against the lowly Washington Nationals.
The Giants offense was led by none other then the new leadoff man of the Giants Aaron Rowand, who went 1 for 4 and had the game-winning two-run double in the Giants big scoring 2nd inning.
That scoring outburst — which Lincecum hastened by coaxing a walk that loaded the bases for Rowand — seemed to sharpen the right-hander’s focus. From the final out of the Braves’ second, Lincecum retired 14 of the next 15 batters until Jeff Francoeur and Diory Hernandez singled with one out in the seventh.
“When you get a lead like that, you don’t want to let them [catch up],” said Lincecum (4-1), who endured no-decisions in his previous three starts and won for the first time since May 5. “You just want to keep pounding them into the ground.”
And thats what Lincecum did for 8 dominant innings, as he kept pounding and pounding the Braves batters and baffled hitters at times.
