Andrew Baggarly - MercuryNews
Giants Manager Bruce Bochy had every motivation to toss the pitch clicker in a trash can and keep Tim Lincecum on the mound in the eighth inning of the Giants' eventual 4-1 victory Wednesday night.
There was struggling setup man Tyler Walker, who was booed as soon as he snapped off his jacket. There was the looming presence of Matt Holliday, the Colorado Rockies' best hitter. And there was the Cy Young Award race, which tightened up when front-runner Brandon Webb got pounded a day earlier.
There were more than 30,000 other reasons, too. Bochy knew once he took a step from the dugout, the boos would surround him.
Bochy stuck with Lincecum (15-3) as long as he could in a one-run game, putting a career-high 132 pitches on the right-hander's rubber arm — tied for the most a major leaguer has thrown in a game this season — before finally absorbing the crowd's disapproval.
"You've got to let the leash out a little bit as time goes on,'' Lincecum said.
Jack Taschner gave up a hit before closer Brian Wilson escaped the eighth. After the Giants tacked on two runs, Wilson pitched the ninth to record his 36th save and protect Lincecum's victory.
Bengie Molina and Pablo Sandoval put the Giants' dugout into full-scale party mode after hitting home runs on consecutive pitches to erase a one-run deficit in the seventh inning and put Lincecum in line for the win.
Even with the Giants in fourth place and out of contention, fans probably would have booed Bochy if he hooked Lincecum with 232 pitches. Molina thought Lincecum threw "about 130,000,'' and figured the right-hander was done when his count stood at 118 through seven. "When he came out for the eighth, that caught me by surprise,'' Molina said. Lincecum received a huge ovation when he sprinted out and scooped up the ball. "It wasn't so much the number as the fact he wasn't laboring,'' Bochy said. "He was still free and easy. And Timmy's honest, too. There have been a couple games when he said his legs were cramping. He said he felt great.'' After a one-out walk, Bochy couldn't take out his best pitcher against Holliday. Lincecum threw a 93 mph fastball to induce a flyout to right field. "He wasn't going any further than that,'' Bochy said. Lincecum struck out 10 over 72/3 innings to increase his major league leading total to 210. He also tied Cleveland's Cliff Lee for the major league lead with a 2.43 ERA. That's markedly better than Webb, who has 19 victories but saw his ERA jump to 2.96 after a rough start against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday. Lincecum's 132 pitches tied Florida's Ricky Nolasco for the most thrown in a game this season. No Giants pitcher had thrown as many since Jason Schmidt (132) in May 2006. Also, Lincecum leapfrogged teammate Matt Cain and leads the National League with 3,008 pitches thrown. Molina found the bleachers against Livan Hernandez to snap a shutout in the seventh. A pitch later, Sandoval hit an opposite-way drive that slipped over the wall in the left-field corner. It was just the second time the Giants hit back-to-back homers this season; Molina and Aaron Rowand combined on the other occasion, May 23 at Florida. "I feel one of my dreams is complete,'' said Sandoval, who received a hero's greeting in the dugout. "My first home run, and it's here at home in a big moment.''
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