Tim Lincecum shines as San Francisco Giants defeat San Diego Padres 8-4 – Part 1
Tim Lincecum put in a tremendous pitching performance as he managed to strike-out 13 as the San Francisco Giants humiliated the San Diego Padres 8-4 on Wednesday, April 6 at Petco Park in San Diego.
This impressive performance has once again shown the dominance of Lincecum on the mound. Currently he is considered as the top performer in the Giants’ line-up and one of the top pitchers in Major League Baseball. Many compare Lincecum with pitching great
Cliff Lee.
Lincecum managed to strike-out 13 as the Padres could only score one run and three hits throughout the seven innings that he pitched.
Tim had a brilliant pitching performance as he did not walk any batter and managed to strike-out the first four batters that faced him. He explained his good performance and said, "having good rhythm is important, and sometimes I get out of that, and that's
when I fall into trouble. But I made sure everything was working right. I kind of used every one of my pitches, so that was good. I just tried to attack the zone as much as possible."
Lincecum handed the ball over to closer Brian Wilson after seven innings. However, Wilson gave up two singles, three runs and a walk.
Jeremy Affeldt came in the ninth inning for the Giants to relieve Brian Wilson. However, Chase Headley hit a two-run double and Ramon Ramirez was brought in to get his first save of the 2011 season as he got Rob Johnson out.
However, the credit goes to the amazing performance by Tim Lincecum for the San Francisco Giants. He single handedly annihilated the San Diego Padres’ batting line-up during the first few innings of his spell. This is the 27th time that Lincecum
has been able to strike-out 10 more in a single game. It seems that Lincecum is beginning to come into his own as the season is just starting to take shape.
The San Diego Padres struggled against the variations that Lincecum delivered. Most of the Padres’ batting line-up just could not do anything against Lincecum’s brilliant pitching. Tim gave the Padres a tremendous variety of pitches to confuse and strike-out
the majority of Padres’ batting line-up.
"You could tell he was on from the outset," Padres’ manager Bud Black said. "He had all his weapons today."
The Padres did not have much on offence as they struggled against the formidable Giants. However, Nick Hundley managed to hit a home-run off Lincecum in the third inning. The Giants put on a decent display on their offence as Lincecum handled the Padres.
It seems as if San Francisco is beginning to find some rhythm in their offence as the regular season has just started.
Continued in Part 2
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