Will Lincecum save Giants after the pounding?

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s all set up for Timmy.  All he has to do is show he still can pitch. Because the fourth and fifth starters in the Giants' rotation haven’t been able to thus far. So if little Tim Lincecum can show he’s a scintilla of what he used to be when he showcases Friday down in the desert, he very well could be the man to get his once (and former?) team out of the wilderness.

Life is timing. And that includes baseball. Who knows whether Lincecum, unsigned after hip surgery last year, still has enough to get batters out in the majors? But over the past two games, Wednesday in Cincinnati and Thursday night in San Francisco, the guys who took the mound for the Giants certainly didn’t. Suddenly there’s a sense of desperation at AT&T, a feeling of “OK, after Mad Bum, Cueto and Samardzija, what can we do?”

As capably demonstrated Thursday night on the banks of McCovey Cove, nothing. Except hope that Timmy still has something from his glory days of Cy Young Awards and that the Giants re-sign him.

On Wednesday at Cincy, Jake Peavy, the No. 4 starter, gave up three home runs in one inning. Then on Thursday night, the Gigantes (hey, it was Cinco de Mayo and that was the name on the uniform) were embarrassed by the Colorado Rockies, 17-7, giving up 13 runs in the fifth.

Yes, that’s been Matt Cain’s obstacle of an inning of late, but never was it as bad as on Thursday when, having been pounded for eight runs and 10 hits, he didn’t even wait for manager Bruce Bochy to take the ball but in a case of virtual surrender reached out and gave it to Bochy.

“We have to find a way to help the rotation like we should,” said Cain, certainly not willing to concede his place. “This is not easy. It’s frustrating.”

Cain had a 2-0 count on Colorado’s Nelson Arenado, with one on and two out in the first. A changeup got out over the plate, and Arenado, one of the game’s better hitters, hit it over the left field fence for his 12th home run of the year. The Rockies, just like that, were up 2-0.

“The biggest thing is to keep trusting myself,” said Cain, who threw a perfect game four years ago, before undergoing surgery in 2014. “My location was good, but the balls were just a little higher than we wanted.”

One game out of 162 can be ignored — in the World Series championship year of 2014, the Dodgers scored 14 in a late-season game against San Francisco — but when two-fifths of your staff are ineffective, you’re in trouble. And maybe in the market for replacements.

“We discussed Timmy,” Bochy said before the game, hardly contemplating what would happen during the game. “(General manager) Bobby Evans can say more about that than me. Timmy still is loved here. There are going to be a lot of teams there watching him. I can’t tell you what is going to happen.”

If the Giants don’t get help by Peavy and or Cain improving — as unlikely as that appears 30 games into the season — San Francisco signing Lincecum or trading for a top-line pitcher is a huge worry. Already the bullpen is a mess, and Vin Mazzaro, just brought up from Triple A, was a disaster after relieving Cain, allowing seven earned runs in a third of an inning.

Bochy was not so quick to dismiss Cain or Peavy. It’s the manager’s nature to keep on a level and never belittle his athletes, although thinking of the 12-run inning by the Mets and the 11-run inning by the Rockies, the manager shook his head. “It’s hit us twice in a week,” he said.

Knowing there may not be anyone better than Peavy or Cain, Bochy said that each of the pitchers, at times, has shown he still deserves to be part of the rotation.

“We just couldn’t get out of that inning,” said Bochy. “I thought our guys had good at bats this game, but the pitching just wasn’t there. Matt’s stuff was fine. It was his execution. He made a few mistakes.”

The question might be whether continuing to send out Peavy and Cain is a mistake. Then again, there may be no other option. Unless Tim Lincecum comes through in his glorified tryout and the Giants subsequently add him to the roster.

“We know our guys,” said Bochy. “We stand behind them. We know they’ll get better.”

They couldn’t get worse.

Peavy: No reason to be embarrassed or disgusted

By Art Spander

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The question didn’t seem to bother Jake Peavy as much as it surprised him. The Giants pitcher had given up six runs and nine hits in under two innings, in his first start of spring training. The Milwaukee Brewers had gone whap, whap and, with Chris Carter’s homer, whump.

And so someone (blush!) had the temerity to ask Peavy whether he was embarrassed or disgusted. Peavey almost couldn’t believe what he had heard.

“I’m not embarrassed or disgusted,” he said. “There’s no reason to be. I gave up six runs in a spring training game. There were some balls hit hard, and a ball that was almost an out. The results weren’t good, but that’s part of spring training.”

A glorious time of year, spring training, part myth, part standing in line at Don & Charlie’s restaurant. The next year we’ve waited for has arrived, if only as Baseball Light, when the games don’t count and even after his team gets whipped 8-7, as happened to the Giants on Thursday, the manager can offer a few virtual shrugs and a couple of casual comments.

“In Arizona,” said Bruce Bochy of the Giants, “if you don’t get the ball where you want it, you’re in trouble.”

Jake Peavy, although fully healthy, did not and was. Well, was in trouble if you consider getting hammered, those six runs, nine hits in 1 2/3 innings, trouble. And neither Peavy, two months from his 35th birthday, or Bochy tended to think along those lines.

Maybe in 20 games, maybe when April is close, it will be different. But, insisted Peavy, not the first game, when you’re trying to get your fastball over and nothing else matters. Which is why they’re called exhibition games, even dolled up with the Cactus League label (in Florida, it's the Grapefruit League).

Peavy, in the bigs since 2002, came to the Giants in 2014 by way of, in chronological order, the Padres, White Sox and Red Sox. He helped San Francisco win a pennant and World Series, but he had hip and back problems early in 2015 and didn’t do much until late in the season. He wasn’t going to overwork himself in the winter and reinjure himself. This February and March is for getting into shape and getting into the groove. If possible.

“Because I’m experienced,” said Peavy, “I was excited to get to pitch today.” It was only the Giants' second game of the spring, and a home game, before a heavily partisan crowd of 8,355 at Scottsdale Stadium.

 “But it wasn’t like I was trying to win the seventh game of the World Series.”

What he was trying to do, unsuccessfully, was find out what was wrong with his basic pitch, the one on which his whole repertoire depends, the fastball. Everything seemed fine in bullpen sessions, but against the Brewers, against batters, Peavy couldn’t throw the thing where he wanted.

“My fastball is everything,” he explained. “If I’m not throwing the fastball where I want to throw it — well, everything works off my fastball, the cutter (cut-fastball), curves, changeups. So I kept throwing it.” And from the first batter in the box for Milwaukee, Eric Young, who singled to right, the Brewers kept hitting it.

Pitching is where the Giants live, although they did hit well in 2015. Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija — the last two signed as free agents in December — Matt Cain and Peavy are supposed to keep the opponents off the bases and San Francisco in race. So even in exhibitions, even in early March, even the least important situation becomes very important. Or one would surmise.

“I love our rotation,” said Peavy, unsure where he’ll fit in that rotation, but pointing out that depth cannot be underestimated. Peavy’s reputation is that of a man dominant in the early innings, then fading in the seventh or eighth.

“I feel quite a bit stronger all over,” said Peavy. “I’m refreshed. If you plan on playing a full season you’ve got to be smarter. I’m not going look today like I will at the end of the month.”

There are no scouting reports for exhibition games. The pitcher throws, the batter swings. And each keeps in mind what might happen if and when they face each other in the regular season.

In the top of the first, Carter came up with two runs in and a runner on third. He drove the ball over the right centerfield fence.

“I’m not going to throw Chris Carter a breaking ball,” said Peavy. “I may have to face him in a huge situation this year. You try to get ahead of a hitter. If you don’t, you better spot the ball. Arizona (with the elevation and dry air) is not the most fun place to do that, but it makes you a better pitcher.”

Better, one would think, than he was on Thursday.

Giants stay alive and unbeaten against Dodgers at AT&T

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — Still alive. “We can’t lose a game,” said Bruce Bochy. Not if the Giants want to keep themselves in the dying pennant race. Not if they want to keep the Dodgers from ending it. And Monday night, late, very late, they didn’t lose a game. They beat the Dodgers, and they’re still alive.  

Twelve innings, a minute short of four hours. Dozens of deep breaths. What seemed like dozens of relief pitchers, but in actuality was only 12. A crowd that seemed overloaded with Dodger partisans who came to watch their team clinch a division but in the end a crowd that reaffirmed its loyalty to the home team, chanting, as always, “Beat L.A., beat L.A.”

And because Jake Peavy was brilliant as a starter and Kelby Tomlinson at second turned a wicked grounder with two runners on into a double play in the 11^th and pinch hitter Alejandro De Aza’s sacrifice fly scored Marlon Byrd from third in the 12th, the Giants did beat L.A., 3-2.

We agree. The lead is too large, now five games for the Dodgers, and the magic number too small, still two, meaning an L.A. win Tuesday night, Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon closes the deal. But the water drips slowly and the streak continues.

Monday was the seventh time the Dodgers have played at AT&T Park this season — and the seventh time the Giants have won. Things like that don’t happen in baseball. Or do they?

“A great game,” said Bochy. “A great outcome. Well played, entertaining. A lot of good things happened, and that starts with Peavy.”

Sunday, in the clubhouse at the Oakland Coliseum, Peavy was talking about the thrill of the chase, how being able to pitch against the Dodgers in a must-win situation was the challenge he embraced, the moment of truth, if you will, when you a man finds if he’s equal to the task. Peavy was more than equal.

“As an athlete,” said Peavy, “you want to face the best in league, knowing you have to win.”

Peavy faced Zack Greinke, who if he isn’t the best (he came in with an 18-3 record) is one of the three best, along with teammate Clayton Kershaw and the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner — who pitch against each other Tuesday night.

Peavy went seven innings, giving up a run and three hits. Greinke went seven, giving up two runs and four hits. Neither was in on the decision but both were in on the trend of the game, which was the sort of pitching battle one might have predicted.

Peavy’s catcher, Trevor Brown, was the guy who drove in the two runs off Greinke, in the second. “Ten days ago,” said Peavy about Brown, “he was sitting on a couch.”

Maybe not literally, but Brown was finished with his season at Triple-A Sacramento and had gone home to the Los Angeles suburb of Valencia.

He got a phone call at 1:30 a.m. on September 15 from Giants GM Bobby Evans and headed to the Bay Area. Then, with Buster Posey taking over at first base for the injured Brandon Belt, Brown steps behind the plate and also steps up to lash a double off Greinke.

“What a great performance,” said Peavy of Brown. “A huge hit. As great as he was behind the plate, he was just as great with the bat.”

When Peavy was on rehab at Sacramento he threw to Brown, so the pair communicated well against the Dodgers. Brown said he let Peavy dictate the pitches and pattern.

Greinke had two strikes on Brown in the second with Brandon Crawford — like Brown a one-time star at UCLA — and Tomlinson on the bases. “I was just trying to be as calm as I could.”  Calm or frantic, he powered a ball deep to center to get the runners home.

“And Kelby saved our neck a couple of times,” said Bochy of Tomlinson, another rookie, if one with a few more weeks on the Giants. “All around, this was a well-played game, then De Aza gets the hit that wins it.

“They tied us in the ninth, and that might have been discouraging, but we have fighters on this club. We’re tired, but we know what’s at stake.”

Just the season, that’s all.