[新聞] Lincecum is sweet relief for Giants
04/03/2008 4:01 AM ET
Lincecum is sweet relief for Giants
Right-hander waits out rain delay to toss four strong innings
By Chris Haft / MLB.com
LOS ANGELES -- The Giants didn't just defy conventional wisdom while winning
their first game of the season. They tested the bounds of sanity.
Typically, the Giants have handled Tim Lincecum as if he lived in an egg
carton. So it was mildly surprising when Lincecum returned to the mound after
Wednesday night's one-hour, 14-minute rain delay at Dodger Stadium. Most
teams would remove their pitcher, particularly a 23-year-old hard thrower
such as Lincecum, following such inactivity out of concern for his arm
stiffening.
But the Giants banked on Lincecum's resiliency. And he rewarded them by
pitching four strong innings in relief and singling to launch a tiebreaking
sixth-inning rally as the Giants outlasted the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-1.
"People have called me a freak of nature before," said Lincecum (1-0). "Now
they have another reason to call me that."
This was a night when starters became relievers and vice-versa, sacrifice
flies represented the height of offensive potency and it rained in southern
California.
Both teams received pregame weather reports stating that they'd be able to
play about two innings before storms would hit. Neither Giants manager Bruce
Bochy nor his Dodgers counterpart, Joe Torre, wanted to use their respective
No. 3 starters, Lincecum and Chad Billingsley, for what essentially would be
a wasted outing. Each was scratched.
Both emergency starters pitched briefly but effectively. Los Angeles
left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo blanked the Giants on one hit through three
innings. San Francisco right-hander Merkin Valdez, primarily a starter for
his first six professional seasons before moving to the bullpen, struck out
the side in the first inning on his way to two perfect innings.
As it turned out, Billingsley and Lincecum could have gotten in enough work
to save their respective teams' bullpens a little more. Rain started falling
in the third inning, but didn't halt play until the top of the fifth. By
then, each team had used three pitchers, and the Dodgers employed their
fourth, Esteban Loaiza, after the delay.
By contrast, the Giants stuck with Lincecum following the delay. These were
the same Giants who prevented Lincecum from making his final two starts of
last season for fear of taxing his arm and who nursed him carefully through a
mild groin pull in Spring Training.
But Bochy, who consulted pitching coach Dave Righetti, bullpen coach Mark
Gardner and, of course, Lincecum himself, felt confident that the
right-hander could handle the return trip to the mound. And Lincecum, who
said that he hadn't worked in relief since his junior year at the University
of Washington, insisted that he felt fine physically.
"If we thought that we were going to hurt him, we wouldn't have done it,"
Bochy said, admitting that Lincecum would have been removed had the delay
gone much longer.
"It was close," Bochy said. "We felt if it got to an hour and a half, we
probably wouldn't have done it."
As it turned out, Lincecum allowed one run -- in the fourth, before the
delay. He weathered constant trouble, allowing four hits and walking four.
But he stranded four runners in scoring position, mirroring the Giants'
offense. San Francisco left five runners in scoring position before finally
scoring in the fifth and sixth on sacrifice flies by Aaron Rowand and Randy
Winn. Lincecum, an .093 hitter last year, opened the latter rally with a
one-out single off Loaiza (0-1).
The Giants survived a pair of threats after Lincecum departed. With two outs
in the eighth, Tyler Walker surrendered Andruw Jones' double and
intentionally walked James Loney before Brian Wilson retired Matt Kemp on a
comebacker.
The ninth began with first baseman Rich Aurilia's fielding error on Blake
DeWitt's grounder, but Wilson pounced on Juan Pierre's sacrifice-bunt try and
recorded a daring forceout at second base. Then came a game-ending double
play consisting of Rafael Furcal's strikeout and catcher Bengie Molina's peg
to second base to apprehend Pierre on an attempted steal.
"You can't say enough about how the pitchers picked each other up," Bochy
said.
Chris Haft is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the
approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 118.171.198.180
SFGiants 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章
12
39
