Lincecum of old finds “Momen-TIM”
By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — One word, cobbled together, pasted on the locker behind his head. “Momen-TIM.” That’s what the Giants had, Tim Lincecum waking up echoes and the home crowd reminding us of the way it used to be and perhaps still is.
Lincecum hadn’t had a start like this since last season. In his previous game, five days earlier, Lincecum made it only four innings against the Pirates, allowed eight hits, struck out only four.
There were questions, legitimate ones.
But on Monday night, with the weather gloriously warm, Tim Lincecum gave the answers. And the usual sellout crowd at AT&T Park, as Lincecum left for a reliever in the eighth, gave Tim an ovation that shook the stadium and shook Tim to his shoes.
“It was special in this park,” he said of the cheering. So was his performance, 7 2/3 innings, two hits, 11 strikeouts, which helped the Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-2.
In 2013 Lincecum did pitch a no-hitter, but he had a 10-14 record with a 4.37 earned run average. What he didn’t have, said the experts, was the fastball, which once enabled him to win two National League Cy Young Awards. Nor by the end of September as a free agent did he have a contract.
Lincecum had lost something on his pitches but not anything from his popularity, as was proven again Monday night by the crowd response. So the Giants re-signed him, for big money, for major league money, $35 million for two years.
Nerve-wracking. Damned if they didn’t. Tim in a Mariners uniform? Horrors. Whacked if they did. Those first seven starts this season of 2014, Lincecum never made it out of the sixth inning and had an ERA of 5.55.
Then came Monday night. Then came the rhythm. Then came the domination, Tim striking out the side in the third and sixth.
And thanks to recent call-up Tyler Colvin, who homered with nobody on in the second and tripled with two on in the seventh, the Giants got their runs.
Eight wins in the last 11 games for the first-place Giants, 11 wins in their last 18 games. They have their troubles, true. Brandon Belt, the first baseman, will undergo surgery on his broken thumb and miss six weeks. Down in Los Angeles, Yasiel Puig is smacking them into the seats at Dodger Stadium. It’s going to be a race, going to be a struggle, but if Lincecum works as efficiently as he did Monday night the Giants will be very much in that race.
“I’m happy for Tim,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “He came off a rough start successfully. It was vintage Timmy. He had his slider and his secondary pitches working, his fastball, his changeup. He had a good look about him all night.”
When you’re hot, they say, you’re hot. The Giants can do little wrong these days.
B.J. Upton, who had two of the Braves’ three hits — the third was a home run in the ninth by Freddie Freeman off Javier Lopez — doubled with one out in the seventh of a 1-1 game. Upton then apparently stole third. But Bochy asked for a TV review, and Upton was called out.
“It was that close,” said Bochy. “I had to wait. It was such a tough call.”
The call Giants management made last October was no less difficult. Do you give a man whose future is questionable a contract basically constructed upon his past? The Giants did. Lincecum was grateful. For the moment, the Giants are grateful.
“The key was to be aggressive,” said Lincecum of his game, “not go into many deep counts and don’t let the big guys hurt me.”
Lincecum threw 113 pitches, had all those strikeouts and only one big guy, Upton, hurt him, although since just a run scored the hurt was minor.
“The slider was working early,” said Lincecum. “I wanted to finish my pitches. I was driving my leg through. My game is relying on it.”
Colvin was the guy signed as a minor league free agent in February. He was brought up from Fresno on Saturday, and had a walk and an out against the Dodgers last weekend. Then, starting in left field Monday, boom, boom.
“Yes, this was the highlight of my career,” said Colvin, 28, who had been with the Rockies and Cubs. “To be part of a winning ball club and get a hit to help them to a win is a real good feeling.”
Lincecum has that feeling because he kept the Braves from getting hits. “I was able to keep my pitches down,” he said. “That really means a lot.”
It meant the Giants had what they needed, Moment-TIM.