Tim Lincecum, the Giants’ prodigous right-hander, has been slightly below his normal standard in the first three innings here, and the Nationals might have a chance to jump on the 2008 NL Cy Young winner if they can keep working counts.
Lincecum’s loaded-spring delivery has sent a number of pitches inside — he’s thrown 60 pitches in the first three innings, only 38 of them for strikes — and the Nationals have hit two balls deep off him. Josh Bard homered to center in the second inning, and Adam Dunn punched a double to the center field wall in the third, eventually scoring off Juan Uribe’s error on Elijah Dukes’ hard grounder double down the third-base line. It’s currently 2-1 Nationals.
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Craig Stammen gave up a homer to Aaron Rowand on his third pitch of the game, but has been solid since. He’s only throwng slightly more than half of his pitches for strikes, but his sinking fastball induced four groundouts in the first three innings.
