Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle
The mind sometimes wanders in a scoreless game. As the Giants and Padres traded zeroes, one wondered how many Tim Lincecums could fit into one Chris Young.
Seriously, San Diego's 6-10, 275-pound pitcher looks like an aircraft carrier standing on its bow. Lincecum dare not walk over to say hello lest Young inhale too hard and ingest Lincecum through his nose.
In baseball terms, Lincecum was the bigger man Thursday night. He struck out nine batters in 61/3 innings to capture the major-league lead, at 36, and did not make the killer mistake that Young did. In the seventh inning, a badly slumping Rich Aurilia slammed a 3-2 fastball from the Pads' starter into the left-field seats for his first extra-base hit of the season and the only run in a 1-0 Giants victory.
San Francisco won its 10th game; Lincecum has worked in half of those. In fact, the Giants are 5-0 in Lincecum's games and 5-13 in the others. He threw a career-high 121 pitches and ran his scoreless streak to 162/3 innings, the longest in the majors this season.
"That's cool," Lincecum said. "Hopefully I can keep that going. Keep not telling me. It's easier not to think about it."
Thinking about playing in San Diego was very painful for the Giants last season. They were 1-8 here and 4-14 against the Padres overall. This year, they stand 4-1 against manager Bruce Bochy's old team and swept the two games here after losing twice in Arizona. Throw in a series win in St. Louis, and the Giants completed their first winning trip since August at 4-3.
That is not cause for getting rings made, but for a team expected to go nowhere, it's a nice step.
"Coming here and facing a great pitching staff, facing two great pitchers like (Greg) Maddux and Young, and coming away with two wins, that's a great road trip," said Bochy, who can feel a little prouder as he walks the dog near his suburban San Diego home.
The Giants had one hit against Young when Aurilia batted with one out in the seventh inning. Aurilia's batting average was .186. His slugging percentage was .186, too. He had struck out in each of his first two at-bats.
"I actually felt I had some really good swings against him, except for the one strikeout on a pitch over my head," Aurilia said.
Just before the climactic moment, Bochy turned to hitting coach Carney Lansford and said, "This would be a great time for him to pop one here." When the count reached 3-2, Aurilia expected another high fastball from the ginormous pitcher and guessed right.
"I'm glad it was a timely hit because Timmy pitched a great ballgame," Aurilia said. "There were a lot of times last year when we had games like that and the starter got no decision or a loss."
Um, Richie, you still have a pitcher like that. Big guy from Tennessee, name of Matt Cain.
While Cain continues to be snakebit, Lincecum is King Midas. When he pitches, the Giants turn to gold. On Thursday, it looked as easy for him as 1.23, his new ERA. Lincecum came out smoking, striking out Brian Giles with a fastball that registered 98 mph on the stadium gun.
"When he starts throwing his breaking balls and changeups for strikes," Giles said, "he's as nasty as anyone in this league."
Lincecum allowed four hits and walked five but faced real jeopardy only at the end of his night, when the Padres put two runners aboard with one out in the seventh.
Jack Taschner relieved him and walked Giles to load the bases, but he escaped by getting Scott Hairston to pop up and Adrian Gonzalez to ground out. Vinnie Chulk worked the eighth and Brian Wilson earned his seventh save in eight chances to complete a trip that left the Giants in the same position as their hottest pitcher.
Like Lincecum, the Giants are small in stature but, at least on some nights, are capable of doing very big things.
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