When a team rolls into Colorado to play a series against the Rockies, the fear of your pitcher giving up the long ball is always prevalent. Despite the increased quality of starting pitching in MLB, a high scoring game at Coors Field is a lot more common than the 1-0 pitchers’ duel. Even with 2 time Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum on the mound, the Giants knew that they were going to have to provide some serious run production, not only to support their starter, but to show the Rockies that the defending champs were still the team to beat. They wasted no time in doing so.
From the onset of the game, the Giants took the upper hand. By the third batter of the night, the Giants had a 1-0 lead and by the end of their half of the first inning, Lincecum was handed a 5-0 lead to start his night. Freddy Sanchez started it up in the first with a one out double and found himself crosses home plate just a few moments later when Aubrey Huff knocked a single to center. After a Buster Posey fly out and a Pablo Sandoval walk, Pat Burrell ripped a line drive home run down the left field line for a 4-0 lead. Not to be outdone before his first at bat of the game, Nate Schierholtz, getting a rare start in right field, then hit a towering shot to right field that landed in the third deck at Coors Field. The shot was measured at 467 feet, the longest home run ever hit in Colorado.
The offense kept the pressure on early scoring another three runs over the next two innings. Sanchez connected for his second home run of the season in the top of the second while the team turned on the base runner carousel in the third and plated another two runs. With the exception of Aaron Rowand and Miguel Tejada, every Giants starter reached base safely in the 8-1 victory. Sandoval failed to record a hit in the game, however, the Panda managed an unprecedented three walks on the night, an obvious tribute to the off season work he did with special hitting consultant Barry Bonds.
But as potent as the offense was, Lincecum was just as dominant on the hill; incredibly dominant to be precise. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and also recorded his 28th career double digit strikeout performance. That moved the youngster into a tie with the legendary Christy Mathewson for the most double digit strikeout games in Giants’ history. His final pitching line was 7.1 innings with just the one run on three hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts. The outing lowered his ERA to 1.67 for the season while giving him 32 strikeouts in just 27 innings of work.
The Giants will need to keep this momentum rolling as tonight they face the always dominant Ubaldo Jimenez who will be making his first start since going on the 15 day disabled list after just one start. He had a cut cuticle on his pitching thumb which prevented him from gripping the baseball properly thus altering the speed of his fastball and the spin on his breaking pitches. He’s healthy now and is looking to repeat his dominant 2010 form when he went 19-8 with a 2.89 ERA and recorded over 200 strikeouts for the first time in his career.
The Giants will have left-hander Jonathan Sanchez on the hill tonight. Over the last three seasons, Sanchez is 3-2 with a 4.46 ERA at Coors Field. However, it should be interesting to note that the last time Lincecum carried a no hitter that far into a game, Sanchez threw one the very next night – July 10th, 2009.
The only no-hitter thrown at Coors Field was done by Hideo Nomo on September 17, 1996.
Game time starts at 5:40 pm and, as always, Comcast Bay Area and KNBR radio will be on the call.
Comments