No Surprise—San Francisco Giants Ride Strong Pitching to Happy Endings

By now, the entire Major League Baseball world has seen highlights or heard stories of the Colorado Rockies' stunning return from the brink on Monday night.

Down by three to the San Francisco Giants, the Mile High crew came storming back to win on a walk-off grand slam by Ryan Spilborghs.

What the rest of baseball possibly hasn't noticed is that the Giants have bounced back very nicely from the gut-wrenching defeat.

The fellas took two of three in fine style from the Arizona Diamondbacks and are on the verge of elbowing their way into a tie for the lead in the National League Wild Card race.

They'll follow Matt Cain onto the diamond Sunday, sitting a single game behind the team in the opposite dugout.

If Cainer can hurl los Gigantes to a win, the good guys would sweep the Rox and join them atop the NL Wild Card division with only September (and its spill-over) remaining.

Left for dead after the profound Rockie resurrection, San Francisco has gone back to 2009 basics and experienced a divine revival of its own. That means transcendent pitching and timely, if not perfect, defense.

Really though, the story is on the mound as it has been all year.

Barry Zito continued his 180 from the last couple years and threw an absolutely stellar game on Saturday. With the crowd at AT&T Park thoroughly behind him, the southpaw came within a couple outs of his first complete game shutout in a Giants' uniform and surrendered his only run on a ninth-inning, solo home run by Brad Hawpe.

Other than the blemish that chased him, Zito's twirl was spectacular—8 1/3 IP, 8 H, 1 BB, 7 K, and 1 ER. Facing a rugged adversary in a crucial game, the former Cy Young winner outpitched Jason Marquis for the W and received a well-deserved curtain call from the abashed home crowd.

The looping curve ball has been devastating for the better part of the year and his numbers are finally beginning to reflect it. The lefty's earned run average is back under 4.00 and he only needs one more win to hit double digits.

Even so, Barry's gonna have to settle for second fiddle for the weekend (or hopefully third, with Cain still to come).

That's because he had the unenviable task of following Tim Lincecum to the bump. Perhaps now all that "Chris Carpenter for NL Cy Young" talk can subside. The St. Louis Cardinal is having a terrific year to be sure, but the award is the Freak's to lose and he doesn't do a whole lotta that.

On Friday night, Lincecum toed the slab against the Rockies and watched them counter with their ace, Ubaldo Jimenez. The two locked horns for a gem back in Colorado and promised more of the same.

Jimenez wasn't quite as dazzling, but the Gents still only managed to scratch out two runs. Which was plenty.

Despite home plate umpire Marty Foster framing an offensively conducive strike zone—closer to the letters than the knees—the Franchise tossed eight shutout innings, gave up three hits, walked four, and fanned eight Rockies.

The truly scary part? Tiny Tim still isn't quite right.

The San Francisco ace relied heavily on his changeup all night because his usual pinpoint command of his fastball wasn't there. He threw 127 pitches on the night, needed over 100 to get through six innings, and squeezed in a first-pitch strike to only 16 of the 29 batters he faced.

Might not sound too bad and it obviously isn't, but this is a guy who's thrown a blanket on teams using as few as 95 offerings. A guy who's gone entire trips through lineups needing little else other than his heater.

But this is exactly what makes Lincecum so unique and so effective—he features four pitches and each can be thrown for a whiff or relied upon to control the at-bat.

The fastball is the filthiest when it's on because of velocity and natural, late movement. But his curve ball, slider, and changeup (which is apparently really a splitter) are no picnic. The last is quickly becoming as deadly as his smoke.

With Friday's twinkler in the books, check out Lincecum's Major League ranks:

1st in K

1st in OPSA

T-1st in SHO

2nd in ERA (behind Carpenter)

2nd in BAA (behind Clayton Kershaw)

2nd in H/9 (behind Kershaw)

2nd in IP (behind Cliff Lee, who has one more start)

3rd in WHIP (behind Dan Haren and Carpenter)

3rd in K/9 (behind Justin Verlander and Rich Harden)

T-3rd for GS (only one behind leaders Lee, CC Sabathia, and Randy Wolf)

T-4th for CG (only one behind leaders Zach Greinke, Roy Halladay, and Lee)

T-7th in W (only two behind leaders)

Remember, this is after a period of struggle for the Franchise. A period that's not quite behind him yet.

Along with those traditional metrics of excellence, consider this is 25-year-old kid who won a Cy Young in his first full year in the bigs. Now, he's threatening to go two for two—two full campaigns in the Show, two National League Cy Youngs.

Why LOOK for a reason to give award to someone else?

Of course, those trivial matters are for the fans, analysts, and other observers to wrestle over—Tim Lincecum and the rest of the local squad have more important game to chase.

The Colorado Rockies and the post-season.

The pitching staff has already carried the San Francisco Giants to victory after victory. But whether it can deliver our "happily ever after" remains to be seen.

**www.pva.org**