Radiant debut of Tim Lincecum to the playoffs leaves San Francisco Giants’ victorious
The thin, shaggy-haired pitcher, also known as “The Freak” showed up on his biggest stage till date.
Tim Lincecum gave a great performance, pitching a two-hitter and striking out 14 in an incredible postseason debut, and the Giants had only one run after an uncertain umpiring decision to beat the Atlanta Braves 1-0 on Thursday night.
"As far as shutouts go, I think that was up there with my better ones," Lincecum stated "I was pretty anxious to get out there a couple days ago. You just have to deal with those extra days."
He pitched a jewel; one day after Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies threw the second no-hitter in post-season history in his first game of the playoffs.
A single by Cody Ross was the only run Lincecum needed after Buster Posey was safe on a steal of second base.
Derrek Lee was struck out by Lincecum for the third time to finish the 119-pitch game in less than three hours.
Lincecum is the 12th pitcher with 14 or more strikeouts in a post-season game.
Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said, "That's one of the best efforts I've ever seen. What a great job that kid did. He's tough."
This was the first post-season game with a score of 1-0 since 2005.
The San Francisco Giants will be pitted against the Atlanta Braves once again in Game 2 that will be played on Friday night.
Lincecum’s strikeouts set a franchise record for a post-season game.
"He was lights out," claimed Manager Bobby Cox regarding Lincecum’s performance. "We had two runners at second base all night and that's it."
Lincecum, who was still pitching at 91 mph in the ninth inning, became the first pitcher since the 2000 AL Championship Series to record 12 strikeouts or more in a playoff game.
The elated sell out crowd of 43,936 at San Francisco’s AT&T Park was the largest crowd for a postseason game in the 11 year history of the park. The 2007 All-Star game had the only larger crowd in AT&T Park history with 43,965 attendees.
Ross hit in the fourth after Braves’ pitcher, Derek Lowe, deliberately allowed Pablo Sandoval to walk.
With his playoff introduction at age 26 and in his third full MLB season, Lincecum looked every bit a star. He was quick all through, allowing just one walk. Lincecum’s career-worst five-start losing streak is now the last thing on anyone’s mind.
"He struggled so much in August," Giants’ first baseman Aubrey Huff said. "To be able to do what he's done is a testament to the kid. It was the first time he's really struggled and he came back and manned up."
Lincecum has a 1.60 ERA since September 1, going 6-1 with an amazing 66 strikeouts.
"At the time guys were telling me you're going to go through your struggles," said Lincecum. "It almost kind of feels it was that far back there, I try not to go back there and think about that mental slide."
Lincecum permitted a double from Omar Infante to begin the game and then struck out the next nine batters consecutively until Jason Heyward got a walk in the fourth inning. The strike outs included five in the heart of Atlanta's line-up.
It was a tough night for a Braves team, without injured All-Star Martin Prado, who has a torn oblique muscle and hip pointer, which ended his season. Prado batted 0.307 with 66 RBIs and 15 home runs.
Tags: