After losing both games of a doubleheader on Sunday, the Giants rebounded with a 6-3 win at Arizona. Another quality start by Tim Lincecum and homeruns by catcher Bengie Molina and third baseman Jose Castillo helped the Giants hang on and get a win against the National League’s record leader.
Every fifth day Lincecum goes out and proves to be the future ace (if you can still call Barry Zito the ace of the rotation) of the Giants organization. Last night he threw seven and a third innings, giving up three runs on six hits, and striking out seven D-backs hitters. He is now 7-1 this season with a 2.33 earned run average. Lincecum only allowed one hit in six runners in scoring position situations, that hit scored one run in the fifth inning. He got into trouble in the eighthinning, handing the game over to reliever Tylker Walker. Working in relief, Walker finished off the eighth inning, giving up and hit and striking out one of the two outs he was brought in to get. Brian Wilson, who gave up the walkoff win in Florida on Sunday pitched a perfect ninth inning with a strike out to finalize the win.
The Giants gave Lincecum a solid lead to work with when Molina gave them a three-run homer in the third. They continued to add on more runs, another in the fourth on a Jose Castillo solo shot to centerfield that still has not landed, and one more in the fifth on a Ray Durham double. That gave Lincecum a 5-0 lead to pitch comfortably with. In addition to the homerun, Castillo also hit a double. Aaron Rowand drove in the sixth Giants run in the seventh inning with a single. Molina was last week’s National League Player of the Week, and looks to be making a strong case to be re-elected this week. He has seventeen hits in his last twenty-five at-bats.
D-backs pitcher Doug Davis will face Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez in the second game of the series at 6:40 p.m. Winning the series against a good team like Arizona on the road could be all the Giants need to get on a roll. Right now the team is being carried by Lincecum and Molina, but everyone needs to start contributing.
