MercuryNews
DENVER -- Bruce Bochy doesn't like playing the bad cop. He doesn't relish stealing the lightness and joy away from groaning Giants fans when he takes the baseball from Tim Lincecum.
So you can imagine how Bochy feels when he gets second-guessed for leaving his ace in the game too long. Certainly, Monday night's 7-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies qualified as one of those times.
Lincecum, by his own admission, wasn't sure where his pitches were going. He already had blown two leads. He walked six, including pitcher Clayton Mortensen. He gave up a series of ear-whistling singles up the middle in the sixth inning while his pitch count climbed past 110.
But Lincecum still had zip on his fastball, and he still had Bochy's faith. So he was allowed to face Carlos Gonzalez, who had hit the ball on the button in two previous at-bats while flying out to center field.
As if on cue, Gonzalez knocked Lincecum from the game with a tiebreaking, three-run home run that nestled among the fir trees beyond the center-field fence.
It was the key moment in a game that upset Bochy in more ways than one. His hitters bounced into four double plays. Lincecum threw away a potential double-play ball when he yanked his throw to second base in the sixth. Third baseman Mark DeRosa failed to stay in front of Dexter Fowler's bad-hop hit in the fifth -- a play Bochy acknowledged should have been scored an error -- that helped set up Troy Tulowitzki's two-run single.
And Lincecum, mere moments after extending his streak to 21 scoreless innings through the fourth, ended up tying his career high by allowing seven runs.
Bochy did not display any second thoughts.
"I thought it was his game," Bochy said. "He had two outs there, so I let him face one more hitter. Sure, look back, you say I could've made a change there. But "... I thought I should let him get the last out."
Bochy noted that Lincecum had an extra day of rest because his start Sunday at Wrigley Field was rained out. And he still had life on his fastball.
"Hey, he made a mistake with two strikes," Bochy said. "If I'm a starting pitcher, I want a chance there in a tight ballgame."
The mistake was a changeup that stayed above the knees for Gonzalez, a dangerous hitter who is heating up after a prolonged funk. In his first six games against the Giants, the star outfielder had been 3 for 21 with no extra-base hits and one RBI. His slump had been a major factor in the Rockies' 3-10 record in May before Monday night.
"This place, that hitter -- that's not really a good pitch," said Lincecum (3-4), who has a losing record through seven decisions for the first time in his career.
Lincecum was wild within the strike zone as well as outside it. He had given up only two home runs all season before Seth Smith's shot to lead off the sixth, and Gonzalez took him deep later in the inning. He was most upset about the leadoff walk to Mortensen in the fifth, with the Giants leading 1-0.
"When you walk the pitcher, that always ends up being a pretty big inning," Lincecum said. "That's when I saw it going down. You've got to respond and I didn't. I didn't pick my team up. I didn't pick myself up."
Tulowitzki's hit put the Rockies up 2-1, but the Giants regained the lead in the sixth when Andres Torres hit a tying solo home run and Nate Schierholtz launched a two-run shot.
Then Lincecum hit turbulence and couldn't reset himself during the Rockies' five-run rally, squandering a chance when Jose Morales hit a grounder back to the mound. Lincecum's throw was to the wrong side of second base and ticked off shortstop Miguel Tejada's glove.
"I was waiting for Tejada to get there, and I just kind of yanked the throw," Lincecum said.
Did he expect Bochy to come out sooner?
"Not really," Lincecum said. "I felt fine. It was just hitter after hitter and "... it just massed on me. It just covered me up and I couldn't find my way out of it. I was struggling with location all day."
A reporter paraphrased Bochy's assessment and told Lincecum that he pitched well. The ace responded glumly.
"Not well. I wouldn't use that word," Lincecum said. "I can think of a whole bunch of other words to use."
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