Lincecum impressive as Giants top Braves
SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco got what it hoped from pitcher Tim Lincecum, and more than it needed from the offense in a 5-1 win over Atlanta on Sunday, allowing the Giants to close the four-game series with three straight victories.
Lincecum, the National League Cy Young Award winner in 2008 and 2009, had been mostly unimpressive this season and entered the game with a 2-2 record and a 4.75 earned run average.
"Hopefully, Timmy gets back on track and throws the way we know he can," Bruce Bochy, the Giants' manager said before game started. "That would make a really good home stand."
Lincecum went seven shutout innings, striking out seven and allowing only two hits before Jeremy Affeldt took over in the eighth. He also laid down a successful sacrifice bunt which drew a huge ovation from the usual packed house at AT&T Park.,
The struggles continued for Atlanta's Kris Medlin, who gave up solo home runs to Brandon Belt (in the second), Pablo Sandoval (third) and Marco Scutaro (fifth). Medlin is now 1-5, has lost four of his last five starts and hasn't had a victory since April 9.
"It's nice being in a situation where you have a chance to take the series," said Bochy, "especially the way it started, where you lose the first game but bounce back."
Atlanta won the opener, 6-3, but the next three games the Braves were outscored a combined, 23-4.
Belt has been erratic at the plate, hitting only .230 with three home runs before his first at bat. But the lefthanded first baseman powered a ball into the leftfield bleachers in the second.
Then Sandoval, whose right wrist still was sore after being hit by a pitch Saturday, blasted his second homer in two days and sixth of the year, a ball which landed in McCovey Cove, the Giants' 63rd "Splash Hit" in history. Sandoval, nicknamed the Kung-Fu Panda, also had a walk and a single to raise his average to .320
San Francisco added another one in the fourth when Belt reached base on the error of second baseman Dan Uggla and eventually scored Bandon Crawford's single.
Scutaro, extending his batting streak to 12 games, led off the fifth with a ball into the bleachers to make it 4-0. Another Braves error, this one by left fielder Justin Upton who dropped a ball he seemed to have caught, set up the fifth run.
The Braves got something going against Affeldt after Sandoval dropped a windblown popup when he and the shortstop Crawford collided in short left. But with two on and two outs, George Kontos came on to end the inning.
Atlanta finally scored in the ninth when pinch hitter Even Gattis doubled home Uggla.
"We know about their power," Bochy said about Atlanta. "They're a very dangerous club."
The Giants the last three games basically rendered the Braves powerless.
"This made it a really good home stand," said Bochy, "and put us in a good mood on the way to Toronto."
The mood was anything but good for the Braves, who complete this 10-game road trip with three at Arizona.
NOTES: Giants manager Bruce Bochy, reflecting on Mother's Day, said of his own mother, "She played such a big part in my baseball life ... with my father being in service and gone quite a bit, she would get out there and play ball with us. She had to deal with polio, yet she still threw batting practice". ... Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was back from attending his daughter Gigi's graduation at Georgia Southern. ... The Braves on June 25 will retire the No. 10 of third baseman Chipper Jones, who ended his 19-year-career with Atlanta at the end of the 2012 season. Jones also will be inducted into the team's Hall of Fame. ... This was the Braves fifth straight Mother's Day game on the road. ... The announced attendance of 41,231 was the Giants 187th consecutive sellout at AT&T, the longest streak in the majors. ... The Giants used the "Uggla Shift" against Braves 2B Dan Uggla -- three infielders to the left field side of second. ... When the score of the Warriors' 97-87 win over San Antonio across the Bay in Oakland was shown on the matrix board, th4e cheer was as loud as any during the baseball game.
