Innings One Through Three: Location, Location, Location
The last time Tim Lincecum met Ubaldo Jimenez in San Francisco, it was a Memorial Day game that would best be forgotten by Giants fans. Billed as a battle between the league’s two best pitchers, it was no contest. Lincecum, the Giants’ ace, the keystone to the franchise, had sparkled in April, but by Memorial Day he had already begun his now epic slump.
Ubaldo climbs back on the mound for the Rockies tonight, his record less splendid than it was in May, but he still throws rocket-propelled baseballs. Lincecum also made his reputation and won his awards as a fastball pitcher. The freaky thing about him was that at his relatively small size he could dominate much bigger men, because he could throw the ball accurately at 97 mph.
He’s not overpowering batters this year, and he doesn’t dominate anyone in the first inning tonight, but he takes a new approach when faced with a full 3-2 count. Recently, in that situation he has either tried to make a perfect pitch or a safe pitch, often resulting in a walk or a hit and shaking his confidence. This time he throws good pitches that induce ground balls. When he returns for the second inning, he looks more confident, and he begins to mix in changeups and curveballs. Meanwhile, Ubaldo is on, so Tim can’t expect his teammates to generate many runs.
So it goes through the first three innings. Tim pitches well. Ubaldo is pitching great. Neither team can score.
Innings Four Through Six: Words From a Pitching Ghost
No sooner do I get up from the press box to get something to eat but Carlos Gonzalez, who has been outstanding this series, hits the first pitch of the fourth inning into the left-field bleachers. It was a fastball from Lincecum, well placed on the outside edge, but high. Another key moment. How will Tim respond? He gets the next three batters out on six pitches.
After talking to fans about Lincecum last night, I looked up the post-World War II pitcher and outstanding pitching coach, Johnny Sain. He’s been dead for four years, but I found him in Roger Kahn’s book about pitchers, “The Head Game.” I got the impression Sain would not have been surprised by Lincecum’s season.
“[T]he natural tendency of pitchers is to start out throwing hard and keep trying to throw harder.” But overpowering has its limits, and Sain said very few pitchers can throw a baseball at 90 mph with pinpoint accuracy. The other way to get hitters out, the way pitchers eventually learn or go bust, is to upset a batter’s timing by varying velocity, and also by throwing fastballs that “rise” or suddenly sink into a black hole. For Sain, to pitch meant to think. “If you can’t think, you can’t play pitch,” he said. “You can’t play baseball. Knowhow is the name of the game.”
As evening turns bright gold with pastel blues and reds, Tim keeps mixing in a variety of pitches, not throwing predictable patterns, not throwing the same pitch twice. Even on a warm night, he’s visibly more comfortable, his movements easy and smooth.
The Giants get a run off Jimenez in the fifth and they have to scratch for it. Jose Guillen hits a solid line drive into right field. He moves to second when Jimenez walks Buster Posey, and comes all the way home when Mike Fontenot hits a ground ball straight into center.
At the end of six, 1-1.
Innings Seven Through Nine: A Thinking Pitcher is a Winning Pitcher
Three innings later, Mike Fontenot leads off with a walk. Lincecum, who I was sure would be removed in favor of a pinch-hitter, comes to the plate. What’s this about, Bruce Bochy? Another move: Bochy takes Fontenot out of the game and puts Darren Ford on first. This is his first game in the major leagues, and you’re putting him in now? What’s this about?
After fouling off two attempts, Lincecum lays down a bunt fielded cleanly by Ubaldo. But he’s got no play at second; Ford is already there. Out at first, Lincecum canters off the field like a thoroughbred as the crowd goes wild. With Andres Torres at the plate, Ubaldo throws a pitch into the dirt that does not get past catcher Miguel Olivo, but Ford has already taken off. Olivo finds the ball quickly and fires to third, only the ball sails high into left field and Ford sprints home, improbably, safely, for what will be the winning run. Brian Wilson eschews his usual melodrama in the ninth, relying on Freddy Sanchez to atone for earlier mistakes in the series by making the final out in spectacular fashion.
After the game Bochy, explains his reasoning for leaving Lincecum in to bunt (“he’s one of our better bunters”) and bringing in Ford (“he’s faster than the ball”). Bochy was also delighted by what he saw from Lincecum on the mound. Like Sain, he didn’t think speed was all that important. “He wasn’t trying to overthrow; he pitched.”
Baseball is a head game, and that’s the game Lincecum played tonight. Whether or not this well-deserved victory marks the end of his slump, he showed he can be more than a Freak. If he thinks, Tim Lincecum can be a great pitcher.
Giants win 2-1, while the Padres lose again, putting the Giants only three games behind in the division race, while still one-and-a-half games behind the Phillies for the wild card.