Major League Baseball

Cam Inman: Tim Lincecum gets a laugh from Philly's fans

Published Oct. 17, 2010 10:12 p.m. ET

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PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies fans provided the comic relief Tim Lincecum needed for Saturday's tense start to the National League Championship Series.

Whistles from the sellout crowd of 45,929 serenaded the Giants' long-haired ace midway through the Giants' 4-3 victory, and Lincecum absolutely relished the atmosphere.

"I was kind of laughing about it," Lincecum said. "Obviously I can't not hear it. Whistles are going on when I'm swinging, when I'm walking back to the dugout. I tried turning it into a funny situation, a humorous situation."

The crowd whistled like construction workers ogling a pretty girl. But underneath those 20-inch strands of black hair is a brain that allowed Lincecum to stay focused and not blow up on the biggest stage of his career.

He prevailed in arguably the marquee pitching matchup in recent postseason memory. He outdueled Roy Halladay, who merely pitched a no-hitter in the Phillies' last series opener.

"The situation was probably the most heightened (of his career)," Lincecum said. "It's the NLCS, Game 1, against Halladay. That puts it right on center stage.

"To make it easier for myself, I approach it like any other game. I wanted to be even keel, be in check with my emotions."

Leave it to Philadelphia's fickle fans to lighten the mood with their silly whistles, which rang out in unison during Lincecum's fifth-inning at-bat and continued throughout the next couple innings.

"I was thinking I must have a really nice butt, because I heard a lot of (whistles)," Lincecum said with a laugh. "I've never been whistled at that much. The Philly fans must love something about me."

They don't love him anymore. The Phillies are two-time reigning National League champions, and losing the NLCS opener at Citizens Bank Park is a stunning blow to their three-peat cause. They had won their past seven playoff-series openers. Now the Giants have won seven straight Game 1s.

Lincecum worked seven innings and allowed six hits, including two home runs that accounted for all the Phillies' runs. This certainly was not as easy as Lincecum's phenomenal playoff debut against the Atlanta Braves, when he struck out 14 in a two-hit shutout to open that division series.

"Unlike last outing when I was kind of on cruise mode, today felt like a work day," Lincecum said. "Considering I got behind a lot of guys, I had to make a lot of 2-0 pitches to a lot of good hitters."

He staked 2-0 counts to eight of the first 14 batters he faced, a recipe for disaster. One of those 2-0 serves, to Phils' catcher Carlos Ruiz, resulted in a leadoff home run in the bottom of the third that tied the score at 1 and negated the first of two solo home runs by Cody Ross.

But Lincecum rose to the occasion, as he's done so often in his four-year career.

And he watched with glee from the on-deck circle as Ross batted in front of him in the eighth spot. Ross' second home run came in the fifth, and a two-run rally in the sixth gave Lincecum a 4-1 lead to protect.

"I think he had that swagger before the game started that you knew he'd be tough," catcher Buster Posey said.

You knew it wouldn't be easy. When Jayson Werth took Lincecum deep for a two-run home run in the sixth, the Giants' lead shrank to 4-3. Lincecum ended that rally by sandwiching strikeouts around a walk to Raul Ibanez.

But Lincecum's night was not done. Manager Bruce Bochy allowed him to bat with one out in the seventh, Lincecum grounded out on the first pitch and fans' whistles were cut short.

Lincecum retired all three batters he faced in the seventh and exited after 113 pitches. He didn't throw many sliders, estimating that pitch produced only one of his eight strikeouts. Nor did he complain about a blister on his middle finger: "No issue. We're good."

Aesthetically, these weren't the best seven innings Lincecum ever pitched. But they meant the most.

"It's a gutty effort," Bochy said. "He got in some jams and made pitches when he had to. I mean, that's a tough lineup."

That was a tough crowd, too.

"You're fighting more than just the Philly team. It turns into the whole Philly atmosphere," Lincecum said. "You know you're going to get that coming in here. It just makes the environment that much more fun, that much more special, and a lot more pressure."

It was a special night indeed. Cue the sound of a happy Giants fan whistling down the street.

Contact Cam Inman at cinman@bayareanewsgroup.com .

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