Tim Lincecum Stymies Houston Astros, Continues Domination

With two out in the first inning, Houston Astros slugging left fielder Carlos Lee was down to his last strike. To stay alive against San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum, he would have to make contact, with hopes of either fouling off the pitch, or dropping it in for an RBI-single.

Lincecum uncorked a curveball that tailed down and away. Lee swung miserably, missing the offering badly. Lincecum walked off the mound towards the Giants dugout. Lee, meanwhile, walked slowly to the dugout, looking back at Lincecum in bewilderment. He was left confused, but he wouldn’t be the only one.

Lincecum, 5′10″, 170, discounting the pounds of hair that overflowed beneath his Giants cap, has become an intimidating figure despite his small stature.

His repertoire is arguably the best in the Major Leagues; he can set up hitters by blowing a lively 95-miles-per-hour fastball past their bats, then humiliate them with a sharp changeup and the big bender of a curveball that Lee knows all too well.

Lee was his second strikeout of the inning. Michael Bourn, the Astros' speedy leadoff hitter, was his first victim, unable to flaunt his speed. After watching a fastball glide through the strikezone to open the at-bat, he was a spectator for the third strike as well, a curveball.

There was much of the same in the second frame. He continued to pound the strikezone, particularly against catcher Ivan Rodriguez. He missed with the first pitch, but quickly recovered from this rare occurrence. Rodriguez swung through a curveball, fouled off a fastball, then whiffed at another curveball.

Russ Ortiz, a former Giant on the hill for Houston, returned the favor. Ortiz, who has struggled to muster much of a career since winning 21 games in 2003 while with the Atlanta Braves, has resurrected his career at 35-years old.

Ortiz, who had not allowed more than three earned runs in his previous 12 starts, struck out Edgar Renteria swinging on a curveball, then fired a fastball to catch Travis Ishikawa looking. After a two-out double by Juan Uribe, he gave Lincecum a taste of his own medicine, hurling a curveball to send him back to the mound.

This was bad news for the Astros. Lincecum needed only 11 pitches to dispose of Ortiz, Bourn, and Miguel Tejada. His one-two-three inning was a letdown, however, because he didn’t strikeout any of the three. For baseball’s leader in strikeouts, this was quite surprising. That’s just how good the reigning National League Cy Young award winner is.

The fourth inning was vintage Lincecum. He worked around a leadoff double by Lance Berkman to strikeout Lee once more, this time on a slider in the dirt, then Geoff Blum and Hunter Pence had similar fates. Lincecum was utterly unhittable.

He has been this way for some time. He entered the outing with a sixteen inning scoreless streak. After his performance against the Astros, that mark increased to 23.

His offense was non-existent over the first four frames, as Ortiz was pitching equally as brilliantly. Then, support finally came, as Ortiz found trouble. Fittingly, Lincecum started the fifth inning rally, working one of his two walks against Ortiz.

Aaron Rowand moved him to second with a single, and Pablo Sandoval drove him in with another single. San Francisco added another run in the inning—Randy Winn scored on a wild pitch—and could have added one more, but Sandoval was gunned out at the plate trying to score on a Bengie Molina single.

Lincecum had an easy top of the sixth inning, then his offense exploded in the bottom. Once again, he was in the middle of the action. Ortiz retired the first two hitters, then relinquished back-to-back singles to Ishikawa and Uribe. Surely, Lincecum would be an easy out, right? No.

There is a reason why Ortiz fell off the map after a 15-9 2004 campaign with the Braves: his wildness. He threw Lincecum four pitches–all balls well out of the strikezone. That walk doomed Ortiz, as back-to-back doubles by Rowand and Randy Winn plated three runs.

San Francisco scored three more runs in the inning. Lincecum, staked a 8-0 lead, struck out the final batter of his seven innings, getting Kazuo Matsui on a changeup. His final line: Seven innings, three hits, no runs, two walks, and nine strikeouts.

Safe to say, Lincecum was dominant. He surprised hitters with his filthy repertoire, but they should have expected this superb performance. He’s an ace, and as good as they come.