Baseball news
Tim Lincecum outdueled Ubaldo Jimenez last night as the San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies 2-1.
Lincecum, who has struggled by his own high standards this season, pitched eight strong innings giving up just one earned run – a solo home run to Carlos Gonzalez – while striking out nine.
It was Lincecum’s first win since July 30th, improving his record to 12-9 and lowering his ERA to 3.68. Lincecum needed to be at his best to beat Jimenez who was trying for the fifth time to set a franchise record of 18 wins.
The Giants are now just three games behind the San Diego Padres in the National League West.
The Padres’ lead has been cut to just three games after they extended their losing streak to seven games. Their latest loss came against the lowly Arizona Diamondbacks 5-2 on Tuesday night despite having ace pitcher Mat Latos on the mound. Latos went six innings giving up just one run on four hits to go along with 10 strikeouts but was let down by the bullpen who gave up three earned runs.
Barry Enright won his sixth game pitching seven strong innings for Arizona, giving up just two runs in seven innings. The win improved the Diamondbacks’ record to 55-79 whilst the Padres dropped to 76-56.
Padres head coach Bud Black is hopeful his team will start winning soon. "Things aren't going our way. We will spin out of it,” he said.
Elsewhere Cliff Lee, who has struggled in his past six games, flew to Texas from the Rangers’ road trip to have his back examined by Keith Meister, the club physician. Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine said tests revealed no structural damage but that there was some inflammation.
The Rangers have moved his next scheduled start from Monday to Tuesday allowing him an extra two days of rest.
"He's going to join us on Friday and we'll see where he is," Levine said. "At this point, he's still on track to make his start next week."
Finally, Manny Ramirez made his Chicago White Sox debut on Wednesday afternoon going 1-3 with a bloop single.
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