Lincecum's 13 Ks wasted
June 6, 2006, was not D-Day for the Giants, but K-Day. That night, Jason Schmidt set a San Francisco record when he struck out 16 Florida Marlins. Hours earlier, the Giants drafted a diminutive but electric pitcher from the University of Washington who now seems destined to break Schmidt's mark.
Tim Lincecum did not get there Saturday night, but a crowd of 37,094 saw him establish his career high by striking out 13 Diamondbacks, the most by a Giant since Schmidt's 16-strikeout game. Lincecum surpassed his previous high of 12, also against Arizona, last year.
In another year, he might have been able to celebrate, but not in 2008. One of the greatest nights in a dismal season quickly turned into the sourest when Tyler Walker, with an assist from John Bowker, blew Lincecum's 3-2 lead in the eighth and was booed off the mound. The Diamondbacks scored three times and won 5-3.
The Giants' 60th loss cost them a shot at their first winning homestand of the season. Instead, they will finish 3-6 or 4-5, depending on Barry Zito's arm and their ability to hit Randy Johnson.
Lincecum wanted his 12th victory. He had to settle for the satisfaction that he more than did his part.
"I haven't been here that long," he said, "but I've seen enough games to know that things are not always going to go your way. The game was exciting, but you're going to run into games that are going to slip away like that, and you try not to get down about that."
"Down" defined Walker's mood after another ill-timed blowup. With the Giants rarely taking leads into the eighth, he has not had the benefit of consistent work to stay sharp, but he made no excuses for blowing a lead his team worked so hard to get against Brandon Webb, who earned his 14th win. Aaron Rowand hit a two-run single in the sixth to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead.
"It's frustrating after we battled back to take the lead against one of the best pitchers in the game," Walker said. "Timmy battled his ass off. I feel I let everyone in this clubhouse down."
Manager Bruce Bochy said he and his staff might talk about changing the bullpen lineup and giving someone else a shot at the eighth inning, although he added, "Right now, the way the bullpen is set up, we think that's the best way."
Bochy occasionally has beaten himself up for removing a starter prematurely. This was not one of those times because Lincecum threw 121 pitches in his previous start and was up to 111 when he struck out the side in the seventh. He also struck out the side in the fourth and two batters in the first (in tough shadows), second and sixth innings.
"The consensus was he was coming off a high-pitch game," Bochy said. "We've got to look after him a little bit here in the second half. We have a setup man and a closer, and they were fresh. We've got to hold it for him."
That went out the window as soon as Walker took the mound in the eighth and allowed a leadoff double by pinch-hitter Augie Ojeda. Stephen Drew reached on Bowker's second error before Chris Young tied the game with a roped sacrifice fly to left. Singles by Orlando Hudson and Conor Jackson gave Arizona a 4-3 lead and finished Walker.
The fans who just had given Lincecum a delirious ovation jeered the native son. Jack Taschner got the final two outs, but one was a Chad Tracy sacrifice fly that gave Arizona its insurance run. When Brandon Lyon got Jose Castillo to fly out in the ninth with a runner aboard, Lincecum's great performance officially was wasted.
Rowand was asked if he experienced a year like this, when good deeds rarely go rewarded. He said yes, that 2004 with the White Sox and 2006 with the Phillies were much like this. But both of those teams finished with winning records before going to the playoffs the following seasons.
Still, Rowand said, "If you're doing the right things and you play the game the right way and go about your business, not only are you gaining experience and positive reinforcement with the successes you have, those are the games that help you grow as a player and help you build off what you're doing for the rest of your career."
The Lincecum Express
Tim Lincecum now has six games with double-digit strikeouts, leaving him only 209 behind all-time leader Nolan Ryan:
| SO | Date | Opponent | IP | Result |
| 13 | July 26, 2008 | Arizona | 7.0 | |
| 12 | July 1, 2007 | Arizona | 7.0 | W 13-0 |
| 11 | April 13, 2008 | St. Louis | 6.0 | W 7-4 |
| 11 | June 28, 2008 | Oakland | 7.0 | W 1-0 |
| 10 | May 17, 2007 | Houston | 7.0 | W 2-1 |
| 10 | May 15, 2008 | Houston | 6.0 | L 8-7 |
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