Mercury News
With a new opponent in the opposite dugout and a fresh mindset on the mound, Tim Lincecum emphatically shook off his June swoon on Thursday.
Facing the Minnesota Twins for the first time, Lincecum had one of his best outings of the season, leading the Giants to a 2-1 victory in front of a sellout crowd at AT&T Park.
Lincecum entered the day with a 7.59 ERA in June but gave up just three hits and struck out 12 in seven scoreless innings. He got better as the game went on, striking out nine of the final 12 hitters he faced.
"His stuff was dynamite," catcher Chris Stewart said. "He was getting ahead and putting guys away from there, mostly with his slider. I'm glad I was catching him and not trying to hit him."
Lincecum struck out the side in the fifth and seventh innings and reached double-digit strikeouts for the fourth time this season and 30th time in his career while ending a four-start winless streak.
He went through a similarly bad stretch of starts last August but said the fix this time around was mental rather than physical.
"I feel like I've taken steps out of that hole that I was in mentally," said Lincecum, who evened his record at 6-6. "The biggest thing for me was keeping my confidence up.
"Early in the game when I was commanding the zone with my pitches, it just opened up my mind."
The Giants are hoping their ace continues to take the mound with the same approach, especially as they struggle to kick start their sputtering lineup.
"That's our strength -- we need our pitchers to go out there and give us a chance," manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's good to have him back."
Lincecum gave the Giants' hitters a chance, and they took it -- barely.
The Giants scored just one run with Lincecum in the game, in large part because of some curious decision making by the Twins after Pablo Sandoval's single and Pat Burrell's double put two runners in scoring position with one out in the second.
Even with the Giants in the midst of a 4-for-46 slump with runners in scoring position, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire elected to play the infield at normal depth, allowing Sandoval to score easily on Miguel Tejada's grounder to short.
The Giants put runners on the corners with no outs in the seventh, but Emmanuel Burriss was called out at home when he tried to score on Stewart's bunt. (Replays appeared to show Burriss was safe.)
"With his speed, any kind of decent bunt he's going to score on it," Bochy said. "(Stewart) knew what he was trying to do, and he knew he didn't execute there."
The Giants loaded the bases after the failed play, but Bill Hall flied out to end the threat.
Aubrey Huff provided some insurance in the eighth, hitting a leadoff double and scoring on Cody Ross' single. The run turned out to be crucial when Brian Wilson gave up a walk and run-scoring double to open the ninth; it was his first run allowed since May 18.
As he's done so often, Wilson buckled down for the save -- but not without some more of the Giants' patented ninth-inning madness. With two outs, Wilson got Luke Hughes to hit a grounder to third, but Sandoval chose to chase Michael Cuddyer to second rather than throw to first.
Sandoval nicked Cuddyer with a diving effort and afterward sheepishly admitted that he barely escaped "being in trouble."
"That was a new play -- we didn't work on that this spring," Bochy said, smiling. "I didn't know what (Pablo) was doing, either. I guess he wanted to show off his speed."
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