PITTSBURGH ? There was just one question to ask after the
Pittsburgh Pirates blew the Giants and Tim Lincecum to smithereens in a 13-2
loss at PNC Park on Sunday.
And it wasn?t to inquire which palm tree they?ll wobble underneath for the All-Star break.
It?s this: Will Lincecum really and truly get the baseball on Saturday, with just one extra day of rest? Or will the Giants look at his 6.42 ERA ? the absolute worst among qualified major league starting pitchers ? and reconsider?
?No,? Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. ?No chance. We?ll throw him back out there.?
So there you go.
The Giants remain near the front of the pack in the NL West. Can they really afford to throw Lincecum to the wolves?
You might ask the question another way: If Lincecum cannot turn it around, will it matter?
?He has to regroup and we need him,? Bochy said. ?He?ll be determined to turn this around.?
After another 3 1/3-inning, six-run meltdown in humid but bearable conditions, Lincecum is 3-10 ? the Giants? first double-digit loser at the break since Barry Zito in 2008.
Lincecum?s 6.42 ERA is the highest of every blessed one of the 101 major league starters who qualify for the ERA title. Remember the sheer panic that followed Zito during his worst times? He never had an ERA as high as Lincecum?s heading into the break. (You?ll find many more brutal, revealing numbers in the Instant Replay file.)
Lincecum?s quiet, almost lip-trembling postmortem contained the phrases, ?terrible? and ?rock bottom? and ?weak link.?
All accurate descriptions. But what about answers? How does Lincecum begin to process this?
?I think the only way I can look at is ? you never want to say, `Hey, I?ve hit rock bottom? or anything like that, but things are going as bad as they are right now, and you?ve got to go out there like you?ve got nothing left to lose,? Lincecum said. ?Go out and leave it on the field and whatever happens, happens.?
It?s happened, all right. It began happening three batters into his start against the first-place Pirates, when he couldn?t throw strikes with his fastball. He tried to backdoor a curveball to Neil Walker. Double. He tried to throw a changeup to Andrew McCutchen. Home run.
?Fastball location hasn?t been there the last couple games so I?m going to my secondary pitches and guys are sitting on those,? Lincecum said. ?They made the adjustment. I?ve just got to make the adjustment back.?
They adjusted in another sense. They no longer look at his thin frame and long hair and the No.55 and see an ace. They see vulnerability.
The fear has pooled atop the mound, not in the batter?s box.
Bochy said Lincecum just needed to forget the first half. Lincecum wasn?t in complete agreement.
?I have to remember it and use it to know what I don?t want to go through again,? said the introspective right-hander, who has used his postgame media sessions more and more as a kind of therapy. ?It?s been terrible and it?s a terrible feeling you?re letting your team down. That?s the hardest thing.
?But it seems everybody else is doing their job and we?re playing good ball. To be the weaker link ? it wears on you.?
The Giants maintain faith in Lincecum, mostly because they feel they have no choice. Of course, they could use a day off after the Houston series to skip his turn. They could give him up to 13 days between starts, instead of just five.
Does Lincecum see their decision as a show of faith?
?Yeah, I mean, obviously they have faith in me and they told me that from the first meeting I had with them,? he said. ?So that?s not the question.
?It?s whether or not I go out there and trust my stuff and execute it. That other stuff is off the field or before the game or after the game. When you get out there between those lines you aren?t thinking about that because one through five, we?re pretty good as a starting staff goes.
"I don?t want to be that weak link, like everyone thinks they?re going to run into a bump or a stump. I?m working my ass off to be where I need to be and that?s really all I can do.?
That the Giants are sticking Lincecum right back on the mound Saturday indicates something else: that they aren?t hiding an injury.
It would be convenient, almost, if Lincecum had a sore elbow or a bad back or an aching shoulder or even a hangnail. But he said nothing is wrong. And he said? he doesn?t need to overhaul his mechanics.
?I feel like it?s more of a fine-tune,? he said. ?I mean, I?ve always gone back to if I?m hurt or something is wrong or I feel like there?s something painful in my body or there?s inflammation there, that?s an inclination that I?m using bad mechanics.
So I feel it?s small things here and there that I just need to tinker with or find consistency with to find that fastball location, find that secondary location. So that?s pretty much it.?
He isn?t feeling any pain or inflammation?
?No, that?s one of the confusing things,? he said. ?I?m not going through any injuries or health issues or anything like that.?
It?s confusing to Lincecum, to his legions of fans, to Bochy, to the front office and to all of the baseball establishment. Sometimes there are no answers. Sometimes there is just fear pooling in the wrong places.
Lincecum will go to Seattle for the All-Star break ? his first time not representing the Giants at the Midsummer Classic since his rookie year in 2007. He said he sees the second half as a chance for a fresh start.
But in the meantime, he will not take a mental break from the craft and the game he once dominated with poetic, balletic grace.
?No, I?m going to pick up a ball and keep my mind surrounded with baseball,? he said. ?I have to think about what I?ve gone through in order to remedy this.?
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I'm catching a flight home (too bad no All-Star Game in KC for me ... I was looking forward to an in-depth interview with Arthur Bryant), so no time for an Extra Baggs file after the game. Look for my midseason coverage later in the week, and I'll catch up with you again in Atlanta. Please make sure to follow my CSN colleagues during the Houston series. As always, thanks for reading.
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