It’s been a few starts since we’ve seen the dominating Tim Lincecum out on the mound, but he was absolutely lights out against the Minnesota Twins this afternoon at AT&T. Timmy fanned 12 Twinkies en route to a 2-1 win for the San Francisco Giants.
Lincecum (W 6-6) held Minnesota to only three hits over his seven innings of scoreless ball with all of his strikeouts coming on a swinging strike three. Catcher Chris Stewart called Timmy’s outing this afternoon ‘disgusting’ (in a good way) and absolutely had no-hitter stuff by the Cove today.
Then came the bullpen with Javy Lopez throwing a perfect eighth inning, followed by Brian Wilson in the ninth to add some classic Giants torture. After walking Alexi Casilla, Wilson gave up an RBI double to Michael Cuddyer to make the score 2-1. Then Luke Hughes shot a spicy grounder to Pablo at third, who sprinted Cuddyer back towards second, laying out to to get the tag and the final out of the game. It was Wilson’s 21st save of the year, and one of his most exciting.
The Giants offense struggled once again going only 2-9 with runners in scoring postion. But those two hits were huge as Miguel Tejada hit an RBI ground out in the second, then didn’t score again until and RBI single from Cody Ross in the eighth gave the Giants some much needed insurance. Tejada and Aaron Rowand were both 2-3 for the day, Aubrey Huff was 1-4 with a double, while Pat Burrell was 1-2 with a double and a walk.
Brian Duensing (L 4-7) took the loss for the Twins with 6 2/3 innings of work, allowing six hits and only the one earned run along with two walks and five strikeouts.
With the win the Giants move to 41-34 on the year. Full box score can be found here.
The Giants will host the Cleveland Indians starting Friday with Jonathan Sanchez (4-5 3.71 ERA) taking the hill for San Francisco and Carlos Carrasco (7-3 3.87 ERA).