Tim Lincecum is hurt.
Four words no Giants fan wanted to read or hear. Or imagine.
The franchise is holding its collective breath because The Franchise limped off the field in the fifth inning Tuesday night, having gotten drilled by a scorching line drive off the bat of Houston's Brad Ausmus, the inning's first batter.
Lincecum was hit on the right knee and taken from Minute Maid Park to have X-rays. After the game, manager Bruce Bochy said the X-rays were negative and that Lincecum had a bone bruise but was able to walk around the clubhouse.
In his absence from the game, the Giants turned a 3-2 lead into a 12-4 loss, and the Astros celebrated their sixth straight victory and 10th in 12 games.
In a Giants season with few redeeming qualities other than the introduction of some promising youth, Lincecum has been the main story line, the face of the future, the front-and-center guy as the team tries to rebound from the Barry Bonds era.
He was an All-Star and is a Cy Young Award candidate, and his innings on the mound have been "must-see." Lincecum captured the hearts of Giants fans with his tiny build and explosive repertoire.
He had seven strikeouts before the injury and fanned all three batters in the fourth inning, Geoff Blum, Ty Wigginton and Michael Bourn. That gave him 182 K's on the season, breaking a tie with Milwaukee's CC Sabathia for the major-league lead.
Take away Lincecum's record, and the Giants are 38-65. In a way, a microcosm of the season played out Tuesday. He was taken out of the game with a lead, and the Giants collapsed without him. They didn't score another run until Aaron Rowand homered with two outs in the ninth, after the bullpen had surrendered an eight-spot in the seventh.
Jack Taschner inherited three runners with one out. All scored. Taschner faced four batters. They all scored, too. So did Wigginton, who homered off Geno Espineli to cap the rally. The inning's big blow was Lance Berkman's grand slam, coming on a Taschner 3-1 pitch.
Espineli gave up two more runs in the eighth, one coming on Hunter Pence's homer.
After Ausmus made contact on his liner up the middle, Lincecum had little time to defend himself. He instinctively tried to leap over the ball and put up his glove. While it ricocheted off Lincecum - right to first baseman John Bowker for the out - the pitcher fell to the ground, rolled over on his back and found himself on all fours near the bottom of the mound.
Head trainer Dave Groeschner rushed to the scene, followed by manager Bruce Bochy and pitching coach Dave Righetti, and Lincecum limped off the field in obvious pain (accompanied by Groeschner, who was holding the pitcher's glove) and down the dugout steps into the clubhouse.
He gave up one hit, and one of the two runs he surrendered in the third inning was unearned, thanks to second baseman Emmanuel Burriss' error. Lincecum himself contributed to the Giants' scoring, hitting a two-out single in the fourth inning and scoring from first on Randy Winn's double.
Lincecum was replaced by Keiichi Yabu, the only Giants reliever not to cough up a run. Alex Hinshaw, Tyler Walker, Taschner - especially Taschner - and Espineli weren't so fortunate.
Tuesday marked the sixth time this season the bullpen blew a Lincecum lead. The first five cost him victories. Tuesday, he wasn't eligible for a win because he didn't complete five innings.
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