SAN FRANCISCO -- Though Tim Lincecum yielded little Saturday, he did flip the baseball he threw for the game's final strike into the stands as he left the diamond.
After all, Lincecum needed no mementos of his performance. The box score of the Giants' 3-0 victory over the Oakland A's accurately conveyed his excellence. And his sheer pitching mastery should have left an enduring impression on the 17th consecutive sellout crowd at AT&T Park and the viewers of FOX's telecast.
Lincecum allowed three hits, all singles, while recording his fifth career shutout. Between Ryan Sweeney's two-out grounder to right field in the first inning and Landon Powell's line drive to right in the eighth, Lincecum retired 21 consecutive batters, permitting just five balls to clear the infield in that span. Maintaining impeccable command of his entire repertoire of deliveries -- fastball, curveball, slider and changeup -- Lincecum ran up four three-ball counts in the first three innings but only one thereafter in his 60th career victory.
"It's always a challenge going against him, because he has a hard fastball and good arm action on his changeup," said A's third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff, a .351 lifetime hitter against Lincecum who went 0-for-3. "His fastball and his changeup are so far apart, and that's what makes him a good pitcher. It's an explosive fastball and he locates well. If you get that pitch to hit, you have to hit it because you probably won't get it again."
Renowned for accumulating scads of strikeouts, Lincecum followed the pitching gospel of Juan Marichal, the Giants legend to whom he's so often compared. Lincecum dominated the A's without overpowering them, walking none while striking out six. This was not a conscious effort, Lincecum said. But he welcomed the results, which, he said, "allowed me to keep that good pace and good rhythm throughout the game."
Then Lincecum summoned his strikeout magic in the ninth inning as if to emphasize his authority.
A's pinch-hitter David DeJesus drilled a leadoff single, one pitch after Giants closer Brian Wilson scampered to the bullpen to warm up. Lincecum fell behind on the count to Coco Crisp, 2-0. That prompted a visit from pitching coach Dave Righetti, who warned Lincecum that he was slightly rushing his delivery. Lincecum responded by whistling a pair of called strikes past Crisp, who ultimately grounded into a force play.
Then came the power: a swinging strikeout of Daric Barton on a 96-mph fastball. A 95-mph fastball on a 1-2 count over the outside corner that Sweeney merely stared at, ending the Giants' eighth consecutive home victory and fourth in a row overall. The outcome widened San Francisco's National League West lead to 2 1/2 games over Colorado.
It was as if Wilson actually had entered the game. Indeed, said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, "I think your great starters are also closers. Though [Lincecum] doesn't complete a lot of games, he's a guy you like out there. ... He turned it up a notch. I think he saw Willie warming up and wanted to finish it."
Lincecum acknowledged that he redoubled his effort in the ninth.
"Especially with the lead we had, it wasn't big and anything can kind of happen in that situation," he said. "You have to go out there and put out what's left in the tank."
Bochy revealed that Sweeney would have been the last hitter Lincecum faced. Lincecum was fully aware of this.
"That's kind of why I didn't want to let him [Sweeney] get away," Lincecum said.
Lincecum didn't, though his pitch count climbed to 133, exceeded only by the 138 he flung in a four-hit shutout on Sept. 13, 2008, at San Diego. Yet if anything, Lincecum looked sharper in the ninth inning than in the first, when he needed 24 pitches to complete the frame. Asked how this could be, catcher Buster Posey alluded to Lincecum's familiar nickname while responding, "I don't know. He's a freak."
Lincecum had no explanation for his edge over the A's. He's 5-0 with a 0.64 ERA, three complete games and two shutouts in six career starts against Oakland.
"Maybe it's that I don't see them that much throughout the year. I have no idea," he said.
Lincecum admitted that the afternoon shadows, resulting from the game's 4:15 p.m. PT start, enhanced his brilliance.
"I have sympathy for them," Lincecum said, referring to hitters in general. "It's tough at times [with] the game times that we have. The shadows kind of settle in. You have to take advantage of it from a pitcher's perspective."
As Posey explained, "It's one of those things where the ball's coming in from the sunlight to the shade. It's tough to see spin. We all have to deal with it. It's one of those things you try to battle through."
Posey battled through it better than anyone else. He lengthened his hitting streak to 10 games, going 2-for-4 while scoring a run and driving in another to account for most of the Giants' offense.
"He was using the whole field," Bochy said, referring to the first-inning RBI groundout and the eighth-inning single Posey poked the opposite way, as well as the third-inning double and fifth-inning lineout he yanked to left.
Posey's production stood out, since Lincecum let none of the A's come close to equaling it.
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