Category Archives: Linceblog: Following Tim Lincecum

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Emil Guillermo/Linceblog:Tim Lincecum says he draws inspiration from his Filipino heritage.

On Friday night, the dangle was on.

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The dangle?

That’s the spot where Tim Lincecum reaches back with his right hand to get leverage for his delivery of the ball to the plate.

And by his own admission, “today felt better than most.”

Lincecum dazzled the sold out SF Giants crowd with a “Timmy Day” performance (6 innings, 3-hits, No runs, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts, ERA 2.00).

He stopped the Marlins’ slugger Giancarlo Stanton cold,  striking him out twice; the most critical one being a changeup in the 5th that ended a bases-loaded rally.

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Lincecum seemed to punctuate the second Stanton strike out with a little extra English on his fist pump.

“I was pretty excited about it,” Lincecum said to me  in the clubhouse. “It was a pretty emotional setting.”

Pitching with a lead also helped, thanks to a Casey McGhee grand-slam in the 2nd inning. Two more runs  came in the 5th and 7th  but the Giants had enough to stop the Marlins on this night, 6-0.

It was also another Filipino Heritage Night, and fans who bought the special ticket received a bobble-head that commemorated Lincecum’s second career no-hitter last year.

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Later,  I asked Lincecum if he drew any inspiration from  these heritage nights.

“Yes, definitely,” Lincecum answered me. “I think there’s always something to be said about where you come from, and obviously, my mom is full Filipino, so that goes into it without saying. I wasn’t really focused on that today. I was focused on the task at hand…But (fans) got a cool bobble-head, and it’s on a good night.”

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Linceblog: Drastic times call for drastic Mohawk Pompadour look. Let the winning begin!

Tim Lincecum has revealed a new hairstyle, a kind of Mohawk Pompadour look.

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The picture was tweeted out by AP baseball writer Janie McCauley.

When I’ve interviewed Lincecum in the past, he always said he didn’t believe in any baseball superstitions, preferring to keep things focused on what happens on the field.

So I doubt he did it to help change the mojo of the team.

But after seven straight losses, any kind of change at this point couldn’t hurt.

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Linceblog: Tim Lincecum’s first inning blues; one pitch golfed into the stands makes all the difference.

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(Lincecum pictured here on a much better day).

He still made batters miss tonight. But the Giants’ Tim Lincecum’s  28 pitch 1st inning set the tone against the Rockies Wednesday night.

A walk and a hit put runners on base for Colorado batter Nolan Arenado, last night’s defensive star.  ‘

Tonight he was the offensive star.

With two pitches, Lincecum fooled him badly and looked like he had him with two strikes in the count. But Arenado anticipated the next pitch, a slow curve outside, and golfed it into the left centerfield seats to make it 3-0, Rockies.

Usually you can weather that if you have a decent offense.

But when you have a team that can barely muster a run, giving up three in the first make the home team’s bats even heavier.

Lincecum had some good ball movement in the first. But he isn’t showing much velocity. His fastball only hit the gun at 88 mph, which doesn’t make for enough of a speed variance to fool hitters consistently.

The Arenado sequence went 72, 80, 78.  Even with some movement, the pitches start looking the same.  Lincecum tried one more slop pitch away and Arenado got him.

Lincecum’s line didn’t look all that  bad.  He went 5 innings;  88 pitches; gave up 6 hits; 4 runs, 3 earned,1 walk (good control), and 4 strikeouts (he still fooled some of them).

He just didn’t get run support.

But then, this is the team that scores in the post season with  sac bunts, double plays and normal outs.

It just seems more charming in the post-season. Early in the regular season, it just seems …less  charming.

Giants got back a run in the first with Aoki (HBP) and Pagan with an RBI single scratching out some offense.

They didn’t get shut out.

The Rocks added a run in the second  to make it 4-1.

And you know Lincecum would have wanted that one pitch to Arenado back, as he watched the rest of the game from the dugout.

UPDATE: Matt Duffy added a homerun for the Giants in the bottom of the 8th.  And that made the score appropriate for Jackie Robinson Day.  In a game where everyone wore No.42, the score ended up appropriately, 4-2.

 

 

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Emil Guillermo: SF Giants may miss Panda more than they think, but maybe they can build an identity around Nori Aoki?

For non-fans of the SF Giants, “C. Heston” is Chris, not Charlton.

But the way the team is running these days, they can use a guy who can walk on water.

Still, they’d settle for someone who could hit with men on base.

In the home opener, the Giants left 12 men on base and went 0-7 with runners in scoring position.

That’s a lot of offensive tease and fail. It’s a pattern Giants observers have seen before.

The Giants lost to the Rockies just 2-0, making the home team’s opening day highlight Heston’s good pitching which kept the game close. (I mean we’re not counting Madbum on the horse as a game highlight, are we?)

On these kind of pop-less bat  days, Giants fans may have to grow to love Nori Aoki.

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That’s Aoki doing his impression of Buster Posey.

From the first at bat at the leadoff position, Aoki was  offensive spark on Monday.

The new Giants left-fielder has a 16-game hitting streak dating back to last season with World Series opponent, the Kansas City  Royals, who incidentally  have started the new season undefeated.

Aoki, a skilled contact hitter, finished the opener with two hits and is now hitting .412. .

Shouldn’t take long for fans, especially with the Giants large Asian American fan base, to warm up to Aoki.

But maybe the Giants will end up missing Kung Fu Panda, Pablo Sandoval more than they think.

Sandoval  made his mark in October and with his  big personality, it all contributed to the Giants identity as a champion.

Now that he’s gone, the team is really all about Posey and the pitchers.

And almost all of them  are “lead by example” guys.

Sandoval led by his gut, literally and figuratively. Even when he was in a down cycle production wise, he was still entertaining to watch.

Maybe Pence will come back after his injury and spark the team.

But I sure felt the loss of Sandoval in the home park when I was there on Monday.

It’s just strange not seeing any panda hats in the stands for the first time in years.

Remember those days?

pandapandas

This was from the2014 post-season.

I guess we can’t expect them  to be playing like that in April.

That’s why they play 162.

UPDATE: Again on Tuesday night, Giants abysmal with runners in scoring position.  Hudson, like Heston on opening day, pitched well enough to keep the game close. If he had any run support, it would have been good enough. But it’s  tough when you have three-run pitching and a no-run offense.

Giants score to make it 3-1 in 8th,  as Matt Duffy  gets an RBI on a sacrifice fly to right. It comes  only after a runner moved up on a foul-out.  Sound familiar? That’s the Giants post-season offense last year—the productive out strategy. But then Posey’s 8th inning blast to center turns into a long non-productive out.  And the inning and the threat ends.

Two runs in the 9th to extend, three to win? It’s not October.

UPDATE: Game ends, 4-1, Rockies. The last two out by the two early season heroes. Justin Maxwell strikes out looking. And Aoki strikes out swinging.  Five losses in a row. The champs rely on the Freak to play stopper on Wednesday.

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