Sunday, April 11, 2010

Swingin' Tim

In his second start of the 2010 campaign, Tim Lincecum faced a couple of worthy opponents in the Altlanta Braves and a gnarly spring storm. The game was delayed 249 minutes, which gave everyone a chance to rehash the dangers of using a starter of Tim's stature during such unlikely playing conditions. Hell, it gave everybody a chance to rehash every pitch of the 2000 season. After the crazy long wait, we were greeted by some atypical Tim: a 4 pitch walk ("OH, those two out walks!") followed by a crushed homer by Brian McCann, truly one of the most under-rated hitters in baseball. It looked bad for quite a while there, Kawakami was racking up 11 ground outs (and 6 other outs) in 65 pitches. But the Panda (2b, 3b, HR) and newbies Huff (huge walk, 2 runs) and DeRosa (game winning single) just wouldn't be denied. Of course, neither would Tim. After finally getting the lead, Tim punctuated his dominance by striking out the side in his seventh and final inning. (How many times have we seen that?) Lincecum earned victory #2 by allowing 5 hits, one costly walk, and TEN, that's right, T-E-N, X, 10 strikeouts. As J.T. Snow pointed out, every strikeout was swinging. That's so cool. Pitching for contact is so 90's, so Greg Maddux. I really think I'm beginning to prefer missing bats all together. It's so 'o10, so Timmy!

2 comments:

M.C. O'Connor said...

Most--if not all--of those 10 Ks came on the change-up. It just looks so damn hittable and then--BANG--the bottom falls out and they swing over the top. Man, he's good!

Brother Bob said...

Very nice to produce another come-from-behind win and avoid consecutive losses. Tim needs to rack up Ws and get over 20, in case there's any "Yeah, buts" out there r/t to his greatness.
Also great for Sandoval to have a monster game. This team is going to have to believe in itself and there's no better way to accomplish that than for our two brightest stars to shine.