Tim Lincecum: Optimistic Analysis of San Francisco Giants Hurler's Latest Outing

The results of Tim Lincecum’s latest outing for the San Francisco Giants did nothing to assuage the shared malaise of fans, coaches and front-office personnel.

Not to mention the pitcher himself.

As Duane Kuiper (the Giants’ fantastic play-by-play broadcaster) alluded to in the Friday telecast, Timmy’s stat lines in 2012 are getting pretty hard to digest.

From his start against the Miami Marlins:

5.2 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 4 BB, 5 SO, 2 HR, 97-60 PC-ST

He now has a record of 2-5 with a ghastly 6.41 ERA. The Giants are 2-8 in his 10 starts.

So with all of this negativity dominating our collective conscience, what could possibly inspire hope and a positive outlook for the remaining (roughly) two-thirds of his starts?

Let’s concentrate on the fruitful five and one-third innings of his performance in Miami on Friday night.

In the first inning, Lincecum overcame a Jose Reyes leadoff single and stolen base by subsequently retiring the heart of the Marlins’ lineup.

Compare that to his first start of the season against the Diamondbacks—when he similarly allowed a leadoff single—and one should generate an encouraging conclusion. It’s safe to say that three consecutive outs is a bit more palatable compared to two home runs and a three-spot on the scoreboard.

Big Time Timmy Jim then displayed his accustomed pitching prowess by retiring eight of the next 10 Diamondback hitters (including seven in a row) through the fourth frame.

One walk (nullified by a Buster Posey throw-em’-out of Logan Morrison) and a blast by Giancarlo Stanton did nothing to sully these otherwise dominant innings.

(And to be fair, Stanton is currently making the game look like backyard tee-ball.)

Now comes the most important nugget of eye candy witnessed last night.

During the bottom of the fifth inning, the relative time in which the Giants faithful have come to expect a meltdown from the eccentric hurler, Lincecum defied those expectations.

After producing 2-0 counts to four consecutive batters, two Marlins were on base via walks with one out, and Greg Dobbs had a great hitter’s count in his favor.  

Gulp.

The defiance of his previous outings materialized when Timmy induced Dobbs to ground out to first without incurring any damage. More significant was Reyes striking out on three pitches to end the frame—a purely retro sequence of overpowering fastballs.

It also must be emphasized that the Giants’ ace was absolutely gassed pitching in this humid, muggy Florida climate (just look at his sweat-soaked jersey).

He persevered through a thoroughly arduous inning, looking confident, focused and mentally resilient. The same could not be said about the overwhelming majority of his prior starts.

Unfortunately, this is where the positivity last rears its magnificent face.

Suffice it to say, Lincecum revived all lurking trepidation by allowing a game-tying sacrifice fly (after a double, two singles and a walk) to John Buck and a game-winning homer (for all intents and purposes) to the previously homerless Chris Coghlan in the sixth. Both occurred on pitcher-friendly 0-1 counts.

Alas, The Franchise could not avoid the repugnant, abhorrent and abominable (just a little love to Stephen A. Smith) “big inning” yet again. What’s worse and more curious is that he looked less comfortable out of the windup than he did out of the stretch.

But coming from the perspective of both a biased fan and objective analyst—as oxymoronic as that may be—what I will glean from this latest performance are the five productive, shut-down innings. Also encouraging was his maintaining consistent velocity with his fastball.

I realize others will utterly scoff at this notion and point only to the disastrous sixth inning. I understand, appreciate and could easily agree with that pessimistic, or perhaps realistic mentality.

For now, however, I will do no such thing.

The two-time Cy Young award winner is making necessary strides. He still deserves the benefit of the doubt.