SAN DIEGO – A night after playing a game that took until the top of the 12th inning to score a run, the Padres and Giants locked horns in another pitchers’ duel on Friday night at Petco Park.
This time it was San Diego that claimed the 1-0 win after off-season acquisition Wil Myers took left-hander Jeremy Affeldt‘s offering and lined it off the right-field fence for an RBI double that scored Clint Barmes all the way from first.
Source: Denis Ooroy/ Getty Images North America
Wil Myers drove in the lone run of the game on an RBI double of the right-field fence, which scored Clint Barmes all the way from first base.
The Giants are now 3-2 on the season while San Diego improved to 2-3.
Despite San Francisco not winning the game, Manager Bruce Bochy has to be pleased with the start turned in by right-hander Tim Lincecum. The former two-time Cy Young Award winner worked seven strong shutout innings, allowing four hits while walking three and striking out five.
Lincecum, who worked hard during the offseason with his father, Chris, to smooth out his unique mechanics, was able to locate his pitches effectively, something he has lacked for the majority of the last two seasons. While no longer lighting up the radar guns, Lincecum was able to locate his 87-89 MPH two-seam fastball to all four quadrants of the plate. Couple this with the sharpness of his secondary pitches, and Lincecum was able to continue his career dominance against San Diego.
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Tim Lincecum worked hard during the offseason to clean up his unique pitching motion.
Entering Friday night’s game, Lincecum had a career 2.27 ERA in 193.2 innings of work with two no-hitters to his credit against the Padres during games he has started. The 30-year-old didn’t do anything to hurt those numbers. Instead, Lincecum used his outstanding performance to lower his ERA to 2.24 against San Diego.
While Lincecum was superb, Padres starter Brandon Morrow was able to match him pitch-for-pitch while he also receiving a no decision for his efforts.
Morrow, who was the fifth overall selection of the 2006 MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners while Lincecum went tenth overall to San Francisco, also worked seven innings while allowing four hits, three walks and recording seven strikeouts.
Both starters exited after finishing the seventh inning, and it was up the bullpen to decide the fate of the game. Unfortunately for the Giants, Affeldt was could not prevent the San Diego rally.
The Padres were aided by Affeldt’s one-out walk to Clint Barmes, who raced home with the deciding run on Myers’ shot to right that Gregor Blanco just ran out of room tracking down.
Craig Kimbrel, who was acquired just before the start of the regular reason, recorded his first save in a San Diego uniform.
Buster Posey and Nori Aoki each had two hits for the San Francisco while Myers was the only San Diego hitter with multiple hits, finishing 2-for-4.
The Giants and Padres will play game three of the four-game series today. The game is slated to start at 8:40 p.m. EST. The game will feature a rematch of the starters from game one of the 2014 World Series as San Francisco ace Madison Bumgarner will oppose James Shields.
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