Thursday, March 13, 2008

Giants 5, Padres 11, March 12th

The Giants lost yet another game and the problems were again pitching and defense....their supposed strong points. Tim Lincecum had trouble right from the start as the first 4 batters of the game scored. Strange day for Timmy in that he was starting almost every batter out with 2 strikes, before he got wild in or out of the zone and allowed a hit or a walk.

In the first inning he went to 2 strikes on 6 of the 9 batters, including a 1-2 HBP, a 1-2 single and two 3 pitch strikeouts. In the 2nd inning it was a 1 strike hit, 1-2 hit, 8 pitch walk and 2 more 3 pitch strikeouts. 4 of Timmy's 6 outs were via strike out......all of them on 3 pitches. Even though he walked 2 and hit 1 batter, the problem was pitches up in the strike zone......not pitches out of the zone. It took Timmy 58 pitches to complete his 2 innings of work.......but 38 of them were strikes......a very acceptable strike to ball ratio.

His line of 2 innings, 4 runs, 6 hits, 2 walks and a HBP does not look good at all. But four 3 pitch strikeouts and being ahead in the count most of the time, tells you that he was just a little off. In the Majors, that's all it takes.

1 comment:

James said...

over on the Giants site they posted an article on Lincecum working on a new grip for his slider. Did you notice anything like that or hear chatter about it at all?