The San Francisco Giants evened up their three game series with the New York Mets, defeating the Metropolitans 3-1 Saturday evening at AT&T Park. Tim Lincecum was not dominant but he had little trouble with the Mets lineup while the Giants lineup grabbed enough runs in the first inning to hold up the victory.
The Mets grabbed the early lead with a pair of doubles in the first inning to go up 1-0. However, the Giants responded by getting to Chris Capuano right away. Aaron Rowand led off the inning with a single, Pablo Sandoval doubled, and Pat Burrell walked, which loaded the bases. Nate Schierholtz then reached on an infield single that scored Miguel Tejada and Aubrey Huff knocked in a run by grounding out to the right side of the infield, giving the A’s a 2-1 lead. The Giants would add a third run on a Pablo Sandoval ground out. Sandoval extended his current hitting streak to 20 games with a pair of hits.
After giving up the first inning run, Tim Linecum settled down and went six innings to get the victory. He gave up four hits and four walks while striking out six. The Giants bullpen stepped up to lock down the final three innings and secure Lincecum’s seventh win. Javier Lopez and Sergio Romo closed out the ninth inning as Brian Wilson was unavailable following three straight days of work.