Article:SF Giants: Lincecum and Lewis Beat Padres

The Giants sea-saw season continued over the home stand as they keep beating the good teams and losing to the weaker teams. After sweeping the Diamondbacks, the Giants lost 2 straight to San Diego and barely avoided getting swept by a team that they should beat. Fred Lewis' pinch hit triple off the deteriorating Trevor Hoffman, and another stellar outing from Tim Lincecum helped the Giants Sunday as the Giants' brightest young arm and bat continue to have a successful 2008 season. It was good to see Lewis get his stroke back with the 420 foot triple to the deepest part of the ballpark. Lewis struggled a bit in May hitting only .204 and got on base at a .282 clip after hitting .341 with a .423 OBP in April. Obviously Lewis is not as good as he showed in April, but he's not as bad as he showed in May either. I would expect him to be somewhere in the middle. One thing Bochy should consider is swapping Lewis and Randy Winn in the batting order. There are some inside the organization that think Fred Lewis could be more valuable in a run producing spot in the batting order. I would like to see him hit 3rd in this lineup with Winn leading off for a few weeks to see how he responds to hitting in the middle of the order. Once again, this is the season to experiment.

Tim Lincecum continues to put together an incredible first half. Timmy has yet to start a game without finishing at least 6 innings and allowing 3 runs or less. In other words, he's had "quality starts" every single time he's taken the mound this season. A lot of people worry about how Lincecum's relatively small frame will hold up over the course of the 6 month season, but at this point, he's well on his way to the 200 innings pitched mark and as of June 2nd, he hasn't lost a mile off the fastball or an inch of the breaking ball. If Lincecum isn't in New York in mid-July representing the National League all-star team, it would be a shame. There are a lot of pitchers having solid seasons, but Lincecum is in the top 5 in all major categories including 2nd in strikeouts and era. I don't think anyone is real surprised at how well he's doing, but I'll admit I didn't expect him to be this dominant, this early. His projections for this season heading into June are now: 19-3, 221 strikeouts, 218 innings pitched and a 1.21 whip all going along with a sparkling 2.23 era. Imagine what he could be doing if he wasn't walking 4 batters per 9 innings? While I think 15 wins, and a low 3 era are more realistic, Lincecum has arrived and should already be considered amongst the NL's elite arms.

The Giants Baseball Blog-http://giantsbaseballblog.blogspot.com/