12 K's lead to 1st win, team's 4th in a row
Tim Lincecum earned his first win of the season Friday night, and the Giants won on the road for the first time and extended their winning streak to four games by beating the Diamondbacks 5-1.
Lincecum surrendered one run in eight innings, meaning the rotation's ERA over the past six starts is 0.63. Up next is Johnson, who pitched here in eight of the Diamondbacks' first 11 years of existence and will appear for the first time as an opponent.
Fans are expected to give him a warm reception, at least the fans who recall his four Cy Young Awards and fearless display in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, when he came out of the bullpen on zero day's rest to beat the Yankees.
To Lincecum, the crowd's reaction was subdued, naturally. He collected 12 strikeouts, one shy of his career high, and limited the Diamondbacks to five hits and one walk. In nine career starts against them, he's 4-1 with a 1.79 ERA.
"It's about being better than the guy before you," Lincecum said of the starters' impressive stretch of surrendering three earned runs in 422/3 innings. "Everyone here knows we've got to hold guys down, give our offense a chance to score. No one wants to be the guy who struggles. Everyone wants to keep the streak alive, and everyone's feeding off it."
Edgar Renteria and Bengie Molina homered, and Molina added a bases-loaded double. Just another power display by the Giants, still the only team in the National League without 10 home runs. "This is more of a hitter's park," said manager Bruce Bochy, whose team won four of five on the homestand despite scoring 13 runs (eight in one game).
Giants fans might have cringed in the third inning when Felipe Lopez hit a sharp liner off Lincecum's rear - "the meatiest part of my body," he said. Trainers had Lincecum throw a pitch to see if he was OK. He did, and it registered 91 mph on the radar gun. Yeah, he was fine.
But the next batter, Eric Byrnes, nearly homered. The ball hit off the yellow line atop the left-field wall, a double. Arizona manager Bob Melvin argued it was a homer, and the umpires took a few minutes to check the replay, if only to prove Melvin was wrong.
The Diamondbacks got nothing out of the rally. Not only did Lincecum throw out Lopez, but Byrnes unwisely tried for third when Molina missed the next pitch. Molina easily threw him out, ending the inning.
The Diamondbacks scored their only run in the fifth - on a two-out single by the pitcher, Doug Davis. Lincecum pitched his final inning out of the stretch, saying it helped with his control.
Johnson is the Diamondbacks' career leader in wins, starts, innings, complete games, strikeouts, shutouts and ERA. He played a major role on the biggest day in team history, Nov. 4, 2001, the day fans went berserk.
It was Game 7 of the World Series, and Johnson relieved one day after throwing 104 pitches in Game 6. He retired the final four batters and earned the victory, thanks to Luis Gonzalez's bloop single over Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.
Bochy said the fan response to Big Unit's arrival from the bullpen was "crazy. It's hard to have a more dramatic game than that." Melvin, then the bench coach, recalled Johnson's relief work and said, "I literally got goose bumps that night."
From: MLB.com
 San Francisco (7-8) Won 4 | San Francisco 5, Arizona 1 |  Arizona (6-10) Lost 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 4/24/09 | Recap: SF | ARI | Wrap | Gameday |
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