Tim Lincecum rose to the occasion yesterday afternoon to bring home a sweep of the Dodgers and move the Giants into a first place tie with them. It was a great game and series for the Giants who shut out the Dodgers three straight games. If I’m a Dodgers’ fan I’m pretty embarrassed by my team’s performance this week and have to wonder if the magic has worn off and we’re getting a look at the real Dodgers. Well, almost the real Dodgers because Matt Kemp is a game changer.
Without Kemp in the line-up the Giants pitching staff took advantage of an inept Dodgers offense with 27 innings of shut out baseball, but the biggest news is seven of those came from Lincecum. Lincecum has now pitched 12 straight scoreless innings after allowing three runs in the first inning when he faced Oakland on June 22. In fact, he did not allow a hit after the first inning in Oakland, so he carried that groove into this game. Whatever he found against Oakland seems to be working.
“If things go wrong, I just let it go and move on. That’s kind of what I did against the A’s and it worked out. So whatever would have happened today, I just tried to stay with that mental edge,”said Lincecum.
Stick to it Timmy because if you get back on track the Giants will have a much easier time taking control of the NL West, even though they seem to have done that as of yesterday. The Giants also ran their June record to 16-9.
Good ol’ Dusty returns to town with his first place Cincinnati Reds and his damn toothpick. I loved Dusty Baker until 2002 when he screwed up the Giants World Series victory. If only he had taken out Russ Ortiz we would have won the World Series in 2002, but he didn’t. Idiot.
Hopefully the Giants can make it seven wins in a row with a four game sweep of the Reds. Go Giants!
Major League A*Holes 
It was nice to see Lincecum finally get back in the groove, hopefully it’s a sign of things to come.