Swagger

When we last discussed Tim Lincecum's season, it was on the upswing. His start against the A's was a quality one, and it seemed like, the longer he went in that game, the more he became like the old Timmy. The Timmy who buckled down with runners in scoring position; the Timmy who got the big strikeout when he needed one; the Timmy who knew he was better than the guy at the plate. I wrote that I couldn't wait to see him pitch next against the Dodgers.

It was well worth the wait.

Today marked just the first time all season that Lincecum didn't give up any runs in a start (On April 28th he gave up one run, but it was unearned, in a  2-1 win over San Diego). This game could have gone the way of the last few starts for Lincecum. A double play ball got him out of a jam in the first inning, and pitcher Chad Billingsly ended up on third base with only one out in the top of the third. Lincecum threw a wild pitch and, instead of looking weak and lost like he did in a similar play against Colin Cowhill of the A's a month ago, Timmy became the old Timmy. He rushed to cover homeplate, took a hit from Billingsly (who's got a few pounds on him), and held onto the ball. Billingsly was out, and not another Dodgers player would make it past second base for the rest of the game. Lincecum went seven innings, struck out eight, walked only two, allowed four hits, and lowered his ERA to 5.60, which is the lowest it's been all season.

While his performance during the game showed that the old Lincecum remains, it was his response post-game that proves that he has his swagger back.

"Enough was enough, and it was time to turn it around," he said today after the Giants complete their first-ever three-game sweep of the Dodgers by shutting them out in all three games (first-ever, as in, in franchise history; not a bad way to move into a tie for first place). And when Bruce Bochy came out to talk to Lincecum with two men on and only one out in the top of the 7th, Tim knew he wanted to stay in. And he let Bochy know it.

"He was asking me, 'You got this?' And I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'What?' And I said, 'Yes sir!'"

This week was a week that the Giants had to take advantage of the Kemp-less, slumping Dodgers. They needed to kick LA while they were down, and they did that in a ridiculously dominant way. The Giants have made up 7.5 games in the standings in just a month. Zito, Vogelsong, and Lincecum were brilliant exactly when they needed, completing this three-game, shut-out sweep of the Dodgers, just giving us fans one more thing that we've never seen before in this franchise. Add that to Matt Cain's perfect game, and I'd seriously consider taking Posey's advice after that perfect game: stay up late and watch this pitching staff whenever you can.

Then again...

The Giants just shut out the Dodgers in back-to-back games at home since 1987.

The defense has been great and all of the potential all-stars are busy making their various cases for why they should be voted in. Buster Posey is hitting .307 in June, with four homeruns and 13 RBIs. Over his last ten starts, Ryan Vogelsong has gone 6-1 and owns a 1.79 ERA. Tonight gave him his 13th quality start of the year, which ties him for the Major League lead with R.A. Dickey and Yovani Gallardo. Matt Cain...well, tonight he got the keys to San Francisco and had June 13th declared Matt Cain day. So, there's really not much more to be said about why he should, not only be an all-star, but start in Kansas City this July.

However, tonight, the biggest impact was made by Melky Cabrera. The Melk Man is batting .352 on the season, which is 4th in the Majors. He's added three more homeruns in June, bringing his season total to seven, which is 2nd on the Giants. He leads the Giants in on-base percentage by far (he's at .352, Sandoval is 2nd at .314). And tonight, Cabrera gave Vogelsong the only run that he'd need. He's been clutch all season, providing a spark at the plate and some great defense in the field. Plus, he deserves, perhaps more than anyone, to be an all-start on that field in Kansas City. He hit .305 in 2011, with 18 homeruns and 87 RBIs. He also had 201 hits last season. He currently has seven homeruns and 37 RBIs for the Giants. More impressively, less than halfway through this season, he already has 105 hits. If anyone deserves to return to the place that traded him, it's Melky Cabrera. He's currently in 4th place to be an all-star outfielder, which wouldn't make him a starter. At least, let's be honest, Matt Kemp (who's currently in 1st place in NL outfielter voting) probably won't be making that start.

Speaking of Giants outfielders, I've got to say really quick that Gregor Blanco could use a break. Not that Blanco hasn't been a great right fielder and lead-off man for the Giants (and they have spent lots of time searching for a solid lead-off guy), but now might be a good time to put Schierholtz in for a game or two. On the season, Gregor is batting .258 with four homeruns and 17 RBIs on the season. He saved Matt Cain's perfect game with an unbelievable catch in the 7th inning of that game. He's got a decent OBP of .350 and his 29 walks are second on the team (second to Belt's 31, look who's OBP is quietly on the rise...).

However,

Over the last month, Blanco is batting .221 with seven RBIs and seven walks. His on-base percentage in June is much lower at .282. And over the last ten games, Gregor is 6-40. He's batting a measley .150, and 11 of his 51 strikeouts on the season have come over this stretch.

For the season, Nate Schierholtz is batting a mere .244. He's got three homeruns to Blanco's four. He hasn't been impressive at the plate. But Schierholtz is always a solid defensive guy in right field at AT&T park. Maybe he shouldn't be starting every day, but it's pretty apparent that Gregor Blanco could use a break. And I just happen to know a guy who could use a day in right field.

Big Time Timmy Jim

Tonight was a big night for the Giants

They finally won in Oakland, after failing to win a game there since June of 2009. The Giants offense, which had been meager in the last few games, rallied to score four runs in the top of the ninth inning. Brandon Belt extended his hitting streak to ten games with his 2-RBI double to tie the game in the top of the ninth, Hector Sanchez went 2-4 with the go-ahead RBI in the ninth, and Gregor Blanco also went 2-4 with two RBIs.

But the most promising part of tonight's game? By far, Tim Lincecum.

Coming into tonight's game, Lincecum was 2-8 with a league-worst 6.19 ERA. The Giants last won a Lincecum start on April 28th against the Padres (Timmy was brilliant in that start, by the way, going eight innings and giving up no earned runs). Tonight wasn't quite as great as that start, but after going 0-6 since that start, Timmy will take all the positives he can get. He gave up three runs in six innings. Lincecum has given up three runs or less in just five starts all season (including tonight). He was also pretty dang perfect after those first three batters of the game reached base. After those three, Timmy no-hit the Athletics through the next six innings. He did walk four but managed to strike out eight in his third quality start of the season. He lowered his ERA to 6.07. And while he didn't earn a win, he definitely didn't deserve a loss. And Brandon Belt made sure he didn't take one.

There's been lots of talk today about Lincecum's father, Chris, and his comments to USA Today. While maybe it wasn't the most productive way of getting his point across, Chris made some decent points. As a Giants fan, it's been really tough for me to hear over and over about how Timmy should be traded or sent to triple A or have a start skipped. If he would've floundered tonight, skipping his next start would've possibly made sense. But demoting him to Fresno? Or talking about trading him so early in his struggles? What kind of fans have we become. As Chris Lincecum said, this is a pitcher who brought us back-to-back Cy Young Awards (the first ever to do so in his first two complete seasons), four All-Star game appearances, and a World Series in which he was completely lights out (even winning the Babe Ruth Award for his efforts). He is still a starter that people want to pay to see (whether it's to see a great start or to see if he breaks out of a slump). He is still Tim Lincecum. And while his father may have spoken a little out of context, it's true that (some) fans are quick to forget what he's meant to the Giants. He is still The Franchise. He is still Big Time Timmy Jim.

And tonight he took a very positive step in the right direction. I can hardly wait until next Wednesday's game against the Dodgers.

Perfect

This past Wednesday, I had the great privilege of working Matt Cain's perfect game. Not even the World Series games in 2010 compared to the atmosphere in the ballpark that night. Cain was beyond brilliant, striking out 14, tying Sandy Koufax as the only pitcher to ever strike out 14 in a perfect game. It was the first in the Giants franchise. And nobody deserved it more. Cain owns a career 77-75 record, due in large part to years lacking in run support. He has a career ERA of 3.28 and has struck out at least 160 in every full season he's pitched. He's reached 200+ innings in each of these seasons as well (except in 2006, where he clocked 190.2). Opponents have hit .225 off of him.

And he has had the lowest run support in the majors since 2005, keeping him under the radar and national attention off of him.

The Giants and the baseball gods owed Cain that perfect night on Wednesday. And when Arias fielded that ground ball for the 27th out, people all over the country took notice. Cain will be reading a special "Top 10" on Letterman on Monday night. And, hopefully, he'll be starting the all-star game in Kansas City in July.

Going back to the last blog, Brandon Belt has finally gotten some consistent playing time. This is the first time all season that Belt has started eight games in a row (he hadn't started more than five games in a row all season). In this stretch, he's hit three homeruns, he's raised his RBI total to 24 (from 15), and has brought his average up to .248 (from .226). He's played a solid first base and hasn't committed an error in, well, a week. (I mean, he's still a 2012 Giant, after all). And he did scoop up that last out for Cain's perfect game. So, there's that.

The only dark cloud on the horizon right now for the Giants still seems to be Tim Lincecum. With yet another rough start in the books tonight in Seattle, his record on the season drops to 2-8, while his ERA climbs to 6.19. He has flashes on brilliance - his change-up was wicked tonight, and his velocity was back up to 93 MPH on the fastball - and then it's almost like he remembers that he's supposed to be the guy who's struggling. The best sign right now is that Lincecum still wants the ball and is adamant that he not skip a start. For now, we'll take all the good signs we can get.

no, but seriously

I'm going out of town tonight for a few days (woo, Bahamas!), but I wanted to get out a quick blog before I left.

The Giants have been playing great. 8-2 in their last ten games, now only four games behind the Dodgers. A season-high seven games over .500. No errors so far this month. Brandon Crawford has really started to emerge as the great defensive shortstop that we knew he could be. And, as much as I love my boy Schierholtz, Gregor Blanco has really solidified himself as a great right fielder and lead-off man.

But, here's my biggest issue with the last few games...why isn't Brandon Belt starting every single one? Bochy finally came out and said that Belt would see a lot more playing time over the next few weeks, but he's only started two of the last six games (and he's starting today, so I guess three of the last seven). I know that Bochy is trying to get Brett Pill in there and likes to start Pill against left-handed pitchers for the lefty-righty match-up. And Pill has three homeruns to Belts zero. But Belt has 15 RBIs to Pills 9 and they have almost the exact same average (Belt at .226, Pill at .227). While the stats are not overwhelmingly in Belt's favor, he still needs to be starting almost every day, even against lefties. If Belt is your first baseman of the future and you believe that he will be out there every day, he needs to be out there every day. When he's struggling, stick with him. Bochy needs to boost his confidence and let him know that he believes in Belt. It's cheesy, but it's true.

We'll see if he gets more playing time this weekend. I'll be rooting for it from the beach. #freeBelt