GIANTS Win!

Long reliever Lincecum scores the winning run

Harry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle

Some folks believe that Tim Lincecum eventually will call the bullpen home as the Giants' closer. On Wednesday night, they got a preview. Lincecum emerged from the bullpen as a long reliever, in a game started by Merkin Valdez

Confused? Imagine how the ticket holders felt. They were expecting Lincecum versus the Dodgers' 23-year-old phenom, Chad Billingsley, and instead got Valdez versus Hong-Chih Kuo, all because of a balky rainstorm moving in from the Pacific that prompted managers Joe Torre and Bruce Bochy to try to outsmart the weather.

The Giants traveled an odd road, stopping for a rain delay of 1 hour, 14 minutes in the fifth inning, but ultimately reached their desired destination. They won their first game of the season, 2-1, and averted their first 0-3 start since 1984.

Lincecum entered the game to pitch the fourth inning, his first relief appearance since college, after Valdez and Jack Taschner pitched shutout ball over the first three.

In a stunning and risky move involving the young pitcher they call The Franchise, Bochy allowed Lincecum to pitch one inning then return to a cold, damp mound after sitting through the 74-minute delay. Even older, established pitchers rarely do that.

Lincecum threw 84 pitches over four innings, allowing one run and striking out four to get the win. What a turnabout from last season, when the Giants babied Lincecum so he would not overtax his valuable right arm.

Bochy defended the decision, saying, "If we thought we were going to hurt his arm, we wouldn't have done it."

Bochy conferred with Lincecum, pitching coach Dave Righetti and bullpen coach Mark Gardner during the delay. Lincecum reminded them he often sat through rain delays during high school and college games in Washington. But even Lincecum later admitted he had not returned after a delay as long as Wednesday's.

"That," he said, "was a first for me."

Lincecum also acknowledged the move might be viewed as risky, "but it doesn't feel like it to me. My arm felt good. People have called me a freak of nature before. This will give them another reason."

Had the delay gone a few minutes longer, Bochy said, he would have gone with another pitcher. That's what Torre did. He had Billingsley start the fifth inning before the delay, but Esteban Loaiza took the mound when the game resumed.

Maybe Bochy needed Lincecum for his bat. In the sixth, Lincecum singled and scored what proved to be the winning run on a Randy Winn sacrifice fly.

Lincecum saved his own bacon by striking out Russell Martin with the bases loaded to end the seventh. Tyler Walker started the eighth, and Brian Wilson ended a four-out save by striking out Rafael Furcal as Bengie Molina threw out Juan Pierre trying to steal second base.

Bochy opted to start Valdez instead of Lincecum because of a forecast that called for two hours of rain starting around the third inning. Bochy did not want to waste Lincecum with the prospect of a makeup game today.

"Ten minutes before the game, I'm walking to the bullpen and the manager says, 'You might start,' " Valdez said. "I said, 'What?' "

Valdez was superb, retiring all six hitters, striking out four. Jack Taschner pitched the third. Still, there was no rain, so Bochy decided to go to Lincecum for the fourth inning. Then, of course, it started pouring.

Rather than outsmarting the weather, both managers outsmarted themselves. Their two young studs, Billingsley and Lincecum, had to risk injury by throwing in the rain, and the game was stopped anyway.

Afterward, a win in hand, Lincecum said, "I'm fine. I feel good. My body feels good. My arm feels good."