Major League Baseball

Lincecum expects domination on mound

Published Jun. 3, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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This season, after only two months, is getting, sigh, old for San Francisco right-hander Tim Lincecum, the NL Cy Young award winner the past two years, his first full seasons in the big leagues.

Panic has not set in yet.

Concern, however, has.

Is it fair? Probably not.

He is 5-2. He does have a 3.14 earned-run average. And he leads the National League with 83 strikeouts.

Those are good numbers.

Good, however, is the enemy of greatness, especially in baseball.

And while Lincecum has barely been in the big leagues for three full seasons, his resume is one where domination is the expected, not the hope. Two full seasons has produced not only the two Cy Young awards, but also two All-Star selections.

And the struggle is beginning to take a toll on Lincecum.

"Greatness is a burden,’’ said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. "He's a little frustrated. This guy has set the bar so high that he's tough on himself when he doesn't pitch like he's accustomed to. …I certainly don't want Timmy to put any added pressure on himself. He's had a great year. We're talking about a couple starts here, come on.

"Some of us, myself, who were average players, we're used to dealing with tough outings or at-bats. I did it my whole career. But when you set the bar so high it's a little tougher for him because he is so demanding of himself.’’

Linceum isn’t alone in his stumble. Kansas City right-hander Zach Greinke, the reigning AL Cy Young award winner, is struggling, too. He’s only 1-6 with a 3.39 earned-run average. Greinke, however, has four no decisions and three of his losses in starts in which he allowed two or fewer runs, and pitches for a team that already fired its manager and would consider a .500 season a success.

Lincecum, meanwhile, is on a team with NL West title hopes, which are built around a 1-2-3 punch in its rotation that has potential to dominate with Lincecum, Barry Zito and Matt Cain.

Lately, however, it’s been a challenge. Zito is 1-2 with a 4.50 ERA his last four starts, but allowed only one run in seven innings of what became a 2-1, 11-innings loss to Colorado on Tuesday. Cain went into Wednesday 1-3 in his last starts, but five of the seven earned runs he allowed in 29 2/3 innings during that stretch came in one game.

And then there is Lincecum.

"I don't want to put that on Timmy, that he's got to shut down the other team all the time,’’ Bochy said. "Sure, there's a confidence when he's on the mound, but people have to realize he's going to have off days.’’

Off days are one thing, but an off month?

Lincecum was 4-0 with a 1.27 ERA in five April starts. He was 1-2 with a 4.95 ERA in six May starts. He will go into his start against Pittsburgh on Sunday with only one victory in his last seven starts, and his ERA has climbed from 1.00 to 3.14 in the process.

"It's kind of hard to find my way out of it,’’ said Lincecum, who failed to get through the sixth inning in a 4-2 loss to Colorado on Monday. "I tell (the media) all the time I try to take a little bit away from every game ... try not to sit too much on the negative. There's too much negative going on right now.’’

There are four consecutive starts in which he has issued five walks — 20 walks total in 23 1/3 innings. There’s an average of 18.7 pitches per inning during that stretch. In his 96 previous big-league starts he walked only 227 batters in 647 innings, an average of only 3.2 per nine innings.

He has a streak right now of three consecutive non-quality starts for the first time since June 2007, his second month in the big leagues, when he failed to meet the six-inning, three-earned run-or-fewer critiera in four consecutive starts.

"He's our best pitcher, one of the best pitchers in the National League,’’ third baseman Pablo Sandoval said. ``He's won two Cy Young awards. He's tough. He'll keep fighting. Next thing, he might win 10 in a row.

"...He's one of those guys. He likes to fight. He doesn't have his control right now, but he'll get it back.’’

There has been talk of a blister under the finger nail of his right index finger, which Lincecum down plays but would be a major issue because it would keep him from being able to finish off his pitches. That, in itself, would impact his command as well as his velocity.

"It's nothing,’’ said Lincecum. "I go through them all the time. It had nothing to do with anything.’’

There has been a suspicion that in his continuing problems to control the running game he has begun to rush with runners on base, which in recent starts has been more common than earlier in his career, and that has kept him from finishing off his pitches.

And scouts say the rocking action that is so critical to Lincecum’s mechanics, giving him the hard downhill action in his deiver, has given way to more of a rotation of the right shoulder, which causes his pitches to flatten out, making them more hittable when they are in the strikezone.

"When you look at his stuff, it's fine,’’ said Bochy. "When you walk a few guys, which is unlike Timmy, then it starts to be a little mechanical. I think he's coming closer, working on some things in the bullpen. Like any pitcher, you start missing and there's something mechanical going on."

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