Watching a No No. Tim Lincecum

San Diego Padres (34-45) at San Francisco Giants (46-32)
Tim Lincecum: 0 hits, 1 walk, 6 K/2 singles, 2 rbi, 1 carefully finessed walk

The No No

Since 2007, We've been watching Tim Lincecum grow up.  We have watched him win two Cy Young Awards and make a huge contribution in the winning of two World Series. For a brief moment, we watched him be demoted to the bull pen, and he did it with great dignity. We watched him throw a 148-pitch no no at San Diego last year.  Less than a year later, today, June 25, 2014, he did it again. This time he needed 113 pitches. Lucky for us it was before a sold-out day game as at ATT Park.  

I was watching on television.  It was clear that he was having a special day from the beginning. I started crying at about the 4th inning. With the game on, I watched what was happening on Twitter. People were leaving work to drive home and see it.  I was not the only one who knew it was coming. The Timmy naysayers remained nasty. The people who like him, including me, remained steadfast. As it turned out, it was our day.

One of the great things about the game was that Timmy was having fun. I have not seen Tim have fun at work for a while.

Tim Lincecum has poise. While he has continued to lack consistency, he is maturing. He gets better and better. Not in the ways of the Freak who won those Cy Youngs, but in a way that shows an increasing knowledge of pitching. He is developing a pitcher's mind.  He's still very intuitive, but more wise. He knows what to do. He wasn't worrying about speed;  his game was about placement.  Yes, he is sometimes rattled.  But not today. But he has a quiet confidence. He made it look easy. I'm willing to bet that this was not his last NoNo.

We knew he was "on" from the first pitch.  The first batter was Will Venable.  The count rose to 3-1 before he fought  back  to strike him out.  And he kept going.  And his team kept showing up to help him. The outfield. The infield.  And wasn't Hector Sanchez amazing?  Timmy was good, but let's not forget that he had his whole team behind him. Teamwork at its finest.


A Few Notes:

1. Buster Posey went 4 for 4. with 2 rbi.
2. Lincecum had 2 hits and a walk.  He scored twice. Sandoval had 2 hits with an rbi.
3. Lincecum walked into the game at 5-5, 4.90 ERA. He left at 6-5, 4.42 ERA
4. There was only one San Diego base runner, Chase Headley, who walked in the second.
5. The Dodgers beat the Royals, 4-2. The Giants remain 3 games ahead in the NL West.