The postseason drought will continue for the San Francisco
Giants, who will send National League Cy Young candidate Tim Lincecum to the
hill today with hopes of recording a three-game sweep of the Arizona
Diamondbacks at AT&T Park.
San Francisco was eliminated from postseason contention despite posting its
third straight win with a 4-1 triumph over Arizona Wednesday night. Colorado
leads the NL Wild Card and has won three in a row as well to erase the Giants
from the playoff race.
"We saw the score and it's a hard-fought season," Giants manager Bruce Bochy
said in reference to the Rockies' 10-6 win over Milwaukee. "We knew the last
few days, it's a real longshot but there's still hope. But we saw the score
but [his team still] went out and played well tonight."
Lincecum will make one last case for the league's most prestigious pitching
honor today, but is just 2-4 over his last six starts. He was beaten by the
Chicago Cubs his last time out on Friday, giving up a pair of runs in seven
innings of a 3-0 loss. The righty and reigning NL Cy Young recipient fell to
14-7 with a 2.47 ERA in 31 trips to the hill this season.
Lincecum, who is 9-2 in 16 home starts and leads the Senior Circuit with 254
strikeouts, will face Arizona for the third time this season. He is 4-1 with a
1.79 ERA in eight career meetings with the Diamondbacks.
The Giants, who haven't made the playoffs since 2003, got an excellent
performance from starter Brad Penny last night. Penny went the distance and
held the D-Backs to one unearned run and six hits with five strikeouts. The
right-hander went 4-1 in six starts for the Giants after coming over in a
trade with Boston.
Eli Whiteside ended with three hits, including a home run, and three RBI for
San Francisco, which will close out the season with three games at San Diego
over the weekend.
D-Backs young starter Kevin Mulvey was charged with four runs on five hits and
a walk over six innings to suffer the loss.
"It's a great experience getting to face big leagues lineups like that,
getting to start and getting to go deep into the games, into the sixth
inning," said Mulvey. "Each lineup is a big league lineup. There's no break.
Every hitter is going to do damage if you make a mistake."
Stephen Drew had a team-high two hits for Arizona, which has dropped four of
its last six games and will visit the Chicago Cubs for three games to close
out the 2009 campaign.
Toeing the rubber for the Diamondbacks tonight will be ace Dan Haren, who is
0-1 with a 6.43 earned run average in his last two starts and did not factor
in the outcome of an 8-5 win versus San Diego on Saturday. He yielded five
runs and nine hits in six innings, and remained at 14-9 in 32 starts.
Haren, a right-hander, has allowed five runs in each of his last two starts
and will take on the rival Giants for the 16th time in his career. He is 0-1
in two starts this season against San Francisco and 6-5 with a 2.86 ERA in 15
lifetime matchups, 14 of which have been starts.
San Francisco is 12-5 against Arizona this season, with a 6-2 mark by the Bay.
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