Tim Lincecum’s Awesome Night and Questioning Bruce Bochy

The results from Tim Lincecum‘s game one start speak for themselves.

He had good consistency on the fastball, sitting comfortably at 91 all night and had a range of 89 to just shy of 94.

Also evident in the strikeout numbers is that he had the swing and miss stuff. Of his 75 strikes 37% came on a whiff. He was mixing sight lines on the Braves hitters all night, he would go upstairs with the fastball and then down below the zone with the slider and change up.

It was a pretty sight to see and I am sure that it will give the Braves nightmares thinking about those darting changeups.

Questioning Bruce Bochy:

To play a little bit of a Debbie Downer role here but did Bruce Bochy hurt the team by bringing him out again for the ninth inning.

It was what the fans wanted but was it the right choice? I don’t believe it was for 2 reasons.

1. After 8 innings Lincecum was sitting at 105 pitches which for him isn’t a lot as he regularly goes into the 115-120 range but this is also the area where you see pitchers start to tire. When pitchers tire you see a lot more mistakes up and with a one run lead a mistake up could have meant a tie game.

This is a moot point as Lincecum went back to the mound and had an easy 1-2-3 inning but there is still reason to question the decision. If things had gone bad it would be easy to trace it to this decision. Playing the odds to me says that you go with your fresh bullpen ace in such an important game.

I am glad that things worked out for Bochy here and that we all got to witness the performance but my first and foremost concern is on winning the game and bringing in Brian Wilson would have increased the odds. (Probably not a huge percent, but I believe that a 100 percent Wilson is better for 1 inning then Lincecum after 100 pitches full of emotion)

2. The effect that the last inning has on the potential game 4 starter. Again that last inning pushed Lincecum to nearly 120 pitches compared to 105 that is a pretty big difference especially if he going to be asked to start on 3 days rest.

Again my main concern is on winning this series and moving on to the next round and if the Giants are down 2-1 coming into game 4 I want the freak on the hill and I want him as close to his best as possible. I think that there is certainly the possibility that those extra 14 pitches could have taken some stuff out of the tank if he is needed on short rest.

If it comes to that game it is a must win and then again we will have to look back and question was that extra inning worth it. I don’t know for sure if that will be a factor but you have to believe that your odds are better if he had thrown a little less in game 1.

This is a big series where you have to do the moves that give your team the best chance for victory and I think Bochy may have cost the team a little with leaving him out there. Probably not a lot but with 2 evenly matched teams in a short series you can’t give away anything.