In the short amount of time that Tim Lincecum has been in the majors, he’s been anointed the greatest starting pitcher in the game, and lived to see that title slip away while still retaining his dominance. Bouncing back after an August that saw him post a mind-boggling 7.82 ERA, Lincecum made that month feel like a distant memory Thursday night as he recorded a Giants postseason record with 14 strikeouts of mostly-whiffing Braves batters en route to a 1-0 series-opening victory. Lincecum’s command of his breaking pitches was deadly, as nearly all of the Braves’ strikeouts came on swings at balls out of the zone. Lincecum struck out at least one batter in all but the fourth inning, and coasted behind a controversial run scored by rookie phenom Buster Posey, who got a leg-up on NL rookie standout Jason Heyward in tonight’s game by also bopping a leadoff triple in the 6th that the Braves managed to pitch their way out of.
The controversy in the game came in the 4th inning with Lowe pitching to Aubrey Huff. On a designed hit-and-run, Huff whiffed at the third strike and McCann fired down to second, where Brooks Conrad applied the tag just before Buster Posey slid into second on what would have been a strike’em’out-throw’em’out double play. Instead, Posey was called safe and after retiring Juan Uribe on a strikeout, Bobby Cox opted to walk Pablo Sandoval with two outs, in order to face former NL East nemesis Cody Ross, who always had the propensity for the big hit with the Florida Marlins. Ross capitalized on the earlier officiating error and knocked a playable grounder past Omar Infante to plate Posey.
Atlanta’s pitching will almost certainly be overlooked in this game, but Derek Lowe did not disappoint, yielding just four hits including the Posey triple, walking four including an intentional walk to Juan Uribe with one out in the sixth, and giving way to rookie Jonny Venters who converted the first pitch of his postseason career into an inning-ending, threat-killing double play off the bat of Pablo Sandoval, who was intentionally-walked to bring up Ross in the 4th. All of that would go for naught, as Lincecum dominated Braves bats all night, allowing only three baserunners, two doubles by Omar Infante and Brian McCann and a walk to Jason Heyward. Lincecum faced three batters over the minimum in his first postseason start.
Atlanta gathered as many hits as they did errors in this game, as their league-worst defense reared its ugly head in the opening game of the series. Even still, a postgame lament from a Braves fan this evening might sound something like “Man, we should still be in extra innings right now…”, there was simply no besting Lincecum tonight. Officiating gaffes are part of the game, and that untimely one happened to seal the Braves’ fate tonight due to Lincecum’s invincibility, but the home-field advantage can still be wrested from San Francisco’s control. Game two is Friday in San Fran, pitting two youngsters against each other, Tommy Hanson for the Braves and Matt Cain for the Giants. One thing to note, the Braves bullpen threw 2.2 scoreless innings tonight, with three rookies: Jonny Venters, Michael Dunn and Craig Kimbrel. That was a promising sign in a tight game, that those rookies came on and pitched poised bullpen baseball, particularly Venters who induced that double-play to end the sixth and strand Posey on 3rd. We’ll see if their services are needed in Game Two, as they’ll be up against a completely-fresh Giants ‘pen.