San Francisco Giants: Lincecum vs. Strasburg in Year's First Must-Win Game

After one embarrassing blowout loss and a gritty victory, the San Francisco Giants are tied with the Washington Nationals in this week's series at one game apiece.

I know it's only August and we've got about 40 games left in the season, but is it too early to call Wednesday's contest a must-win affair for the Giants?

Consider that the L.A. Dodgers are getting hot. They've won three in a row, including an 11-0 road shutout of the surprisingly excellent Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday. L.A. and the Giants are currently tied atop the NL West. Note also that Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, who sports a tidy 2.88 ERA to go along with a 1.03 WHIP, is on the hill for L.A. on Wednesday. You have to expect the Dodgers will leave Pittsburgh victorious.

The Dodgers appear to be peaking at the right time.

But the Giants' offense suddenly looks dangerous, now that Pablo Sandoval has been reinserted into the middle of the order. Buster Posey's still on fire and Brandon Belt seems to be squaring up everything he swings at. Oh, and Hunter Pence, much maligned by this writer, has been hacking his way on base at a respectable clip of late.

Taking the final game of the series against Washington isn't important just because the Giants need to keep pace with the Dodgers; it's critical to something larger, with longer-term repercussions.

The Nationals are, without much doubt, the NL's best team. They're practically a playoff lock, as they currently sit 4.5 games up on the Atlanta Braves in the NL East. Washington could get pretty cold—which could happen when they shut down Stephen Strasburg—the rest of the way and still coast into the postseason as division winners or wild-card recipients.

Knocking off the Nationals would be a big deal and a sure confidence-builder for the Giants. But even that's not the biggest reason they've got to take the series on Wednesday.

They need "The Freak" to send a message to the National League.

That's right, Tim Lincecum is on the hill against, arguably, baseball's best pitcher in Stephen Strasburg on Wednesday. And while it wasn't so long ago that Lincecum was baseball's true ace, he's not that same pitcher any longer. Nonetheless, Lincecum will need to be good for the Giants to make the postseason, and probably great if they hope to make October noise.

On Wednesday, against Strasburg and the Nats, Lincecum has a chance to make a statement. He's got an opportunity to not only assert that he's not done yet, but that his Giants are a team to be reckoned with down the stretch.

It may be a little early to call this one a must-win, but with everything that's at stake, it's pretty darn close.