The Giants continue to exhibit patience with Tim Lincecum, despite his season-long struggles. While he still owns a 6.07 ERA and remains winless since April 28, he at least showed some signs of turning things around last night against the Athletics.
Lincecum was on the ropes in the first inning, giving up three runs on three singles and two walks before recording an out. Things could have been much worse, but he struck out Brandon Moss, Kurt Suzuki and Cliff Pennington (all swinging strikeouts) with the bases loaded to escape.
It didn’t look like Lincecum would last very long after throwing 44 pitches in the first inning, but he was efficient and effective the rest of the way, holding the A’s hitless over his final five innings of work while issuing two walks. He ended up allowing three runs over six innings for just his second “quality start” of the season and his first since May 30. The eight strikeouts tied a season-high. Despite being in a early three-run hole, the Giants came back to win the game 5-4.
CSNBayArea.com has the video of Lincecum’s post-game comments, where he expressed optimism about his ability to build off of his strong performance following the first inning jam.