Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/15091
2B – Daily News – Saturday, August 21, 2010 Lincecum struggles through first true funk San Francisco Giants SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Freak is in a funk. Tim Lincecum is showing signs he is human after all in his third full major league season. He acknowledges his confidence is shaken and he’s trying to find himself. The San Francisco Giants ace and two-time reigning NL Cy Young Award winner has lost three straight starts for the first time in his career. Lincecum (11-7) is turning to video and long discussions with pitching coach Dave Righetti, looking to regain the edge that has made him one of base- ball’s most feared pitchers in recent years despite his diminutive frame. The Giants are counting on him returning to top form, and soon. His next chance comes Saturday at St. Louis. The struggles are bothering Lincecum, and he doesn’t hide that fact. His fastball velocity is down from the mid-90s to high- 80s or low-90s, causing people to wonder if he’s worn down from the extensive workload or hurting. He even brought back his 2009 warmup tune of ‘‘Electric Feel’’ by alternative band MGMT for Sunday’s loss to the NL West- leading San Diego Padres, trying to get back into a groove. ‘‘It can be a little bit (tough) out there,’’ Lincecum said of losing confidence. ‘‘You get frustrated when things don’t go your way or the way they have been. You just have to keep coming to the field every day working with a purpose and knowing that it’s going to come back. That’s pretty much where I’m trying to get to.’’ He has tweaked his mechanics and tried to clear his mind, knowing full well he’s probably thinking too much on the mound and it could be making things worse. He has been trying to find the smallest of positives even when things go poorly. Lincecum struck out the side in the first inning of his last start and everything seemed fine again. But by the second, he had run into trouble. He lasted only 3 2-3 innings for his second-shortest outing of 2010. He said returning to his old mechanics isn’t what hurt him. ‘‘That really wasn’t a factor, other than just wrapping your head around doing too many things, trying to change too many things to fix things,’’ said Lincecum, already a three-time All-Star at age 26. ‘‘It’s kind of what I’ve been doing the last few outings. Like I said, getting back to sim- plifying things and trying to be as optimistic as possible. ‘‘I’m a big thinker, my brain never stops working. You start focusing on the wrong things or maybe the negatives and not the positives as much. They exacerbate themselves and they start to manifest and just build up on each other. I can’t keep searching. I just have to go out there and pitch.’’ San Francisco needs its ace for a stretch run that should make for a drama-filled September. The Giants haven’t been to the playoffs since 2003 and anything short of a post- season trip for this bunch will be a major disappointment. The club was in the heart of the NL wild card race until mid-September last season, then general manager Brian Sabean upgraded his roster for 2010 in an effort to finally get over the hump. Lincecum is 1-3 with a 6.15 ERA over his last six starts. He has allowed 14 earned runs in only 14 innings in his last three outings, with seven walks and 17 strikeouts. ‘‘I want to throw strikes, quality strikes where I want to throw them,’’ Lincecum said. ‘‘My fastball’s kind of all over the place right now. Just getting that down-and-away fast- ball, that’s what I have to get back.’’ Padres manager Bud Black isn’t ready to count out the shaggy-haired guy who arrived on the major league scene with the nickname ‘‘Franchise’’ before later being dubbed ‘‘Freak’’ for his funky delivery and quirky way. He used to be mistaken for a bat boy when he got to the ballpark because of his small size. ‘‘I’ve seen enough of this guy over the years to know he’s one of the best pitchers in the game,’’ Black said after the Padres pinned five earned runs on Lincecum in an 8-2 MCT file photo Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum has lost three straight starts for the first time in his career. win Sunday. Black, a former big league pitcher, believes hitters around baseball might be getting more familiar with Lince- cum’s stuff and thus having more success of late. The 10th overall draft pick in 2006 was largely unknown when he burst into the big leagues in May 2007 less than a year removed from the University of Washington. The Padres beat Lincecum on Sunday while facing the hard-throwing right-hander for the first time since losing to him on July 9, 2009. ‘‘You can see that he’s not dialed in with his location and hasn’t thrown as well as he’s capable the last few outings,’’ San Diego’s Chase Headley said. ‘‘He’s searching.’’ Simplifying things is Lincecum’s plan. It’s basic stuff, really. Manager Bruce Bochy doesn’t seem overly con- cerned about his top pitcher. ‘‘He’s got to put this behind him,’’ Bochy said. ‘‘You start logging that many pitches it’s going to catch up with you.’’ In February, the Giants rewarded Lincecum with a $23 million, two-year contract — able to see past his offseason marijuana arrest. Lincecum repeatedly apologized for embarrassing himself and the franchise. He struggled in spring training this year then began to look like his old dominant self again. Lincecum recorded an NL-best 261 strikeouts last sea- son and tied for the league lead with four complete games and two shutouts. He went 15-7 with a 2.48 ERA in 32 starts and 225 1-3 innings. That came after his breakout 2008 campaign. Listed at 5-foot-11 and a generous 170 pounds — tiny by today’s standards for a big league pitcher — Lincecum was 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA and a major league-best 265 strikeouts in ’08. The Giants are confident he will bounce back from this stretch and pitch like the Lincecum of old. ‘‘There’s a lot of things in the game you have to focus on. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around too many things,’’ the pitcher said. ‘‘I just have to simplify things and do what I know how to do.’’ Pearland Power! HRs lift Texas at LLWS A’s SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — Pearland Power! Jake Orlando hit two blasts and Blake Toler’s solo shot in the first set the tone for the mini-mashers from Pearland, Texas in a 10-8 win Friday over Plymouth, Minn., to get the Little League World Series off to a homer- happy start. The 13-year-old Orlando finished 4-for-4 with five RBIs. He was cool and collected afterward, speaking as if he were a seasoned major league veteran. ‘‘I would be super-excited to just come up here and watch games, but to play them is 1,000 times better,’’ said Orlando, as his proud father and Texas manager, Mike Orlando, looked on. Texas hit four home runs and had 12 hits, an offensive barrage in sharp contrast to the crisp pitcher’s duel in Friday’s first game, when Fairfield, Conn., beat Auburn, Wash., 3-1, on Jack Quinn’s tie-breaking two-run double in the fifth. Manati, Puerto Rico defeated Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, 11-0, Friday night, while Tokyo, Japan beat Nuevo Lare- do, Mexico, 4-2, after Ginga Maruoka smacked a three-run homer with two outs in the top of the sixth. After several days of practice, pub- lic appearances and media interviews, the antsy Little Leaguers finally got to play baseball Friday. But not before a GIANTS (Continued from page 1B) Bumgarner was hurt only by Brendan Ryan’s bases- loaded infield hit in the second and Pujols’ homer leading off the eighth, also the last batter he faced. The left-hander had been 0-2 the last four starts but has won all of his games on the road, and has showed bet- ter velocity lately after backing off the intensity little more pint-sized pomp and cir- cumstance in the morning, complete with a ceremony in which players holding balloons paraded into Volun- teer Stadium to the adoring cheers of family, friends and other fans, while ‘‘It’s A Small World’’ played on the sound system. A large U.S. flag flut- tered in a light breeze beyond the out- field fence on a warm, sunny day. ‘‘This is a great American day to be at the Little League World Series,’’ said NASA astronaut Terry Virts, an honorary guest who also coaches Lit- tle League in Friendswood, Texas. It’s the next town over from Pearland in the Houston suburbs, so Virts was very familiar with the Lone Star State’s Little League representative. They put on power-hitting display that newly minted Baseball Hall of Famer Andre Dawson would have loved. He held a hitting clinic for Lit- tle Leaguers in the morning. Three hit- ters after Toler’s first-inning homer, Jake Orlando hit a towering fly that easily cleared the hedges beyond the 225-foot wall to give Texas a 3-0 lead. They tacked on five more runs in the second. Starter Mason Van Noort was in control on the mound with five strike- outs over 2 1/3 no-hit innings, but was lifted in the third to limit his pitch count. Minnesota broke through playing catch between starts. ‘‘My arm’s starting to feel better and better each time out,’’ Bumgarner said. ‘‘It’s helped me feel better each time out, the com- mand’s been there and I haven’t been tired. ‘‘I was throwing high effort level each day between starts and it just wears you down.’’ Pujols also singled and walked and tied Dale Mur- phy for 49th place on the career list after his ninth against wild Texas relief pitching. Five relievers combined for eight walks and three hits for eight runs, and Min- nesota’s Colin Quinn grand slam with two outs in the sixth got his team with- in 10-8 before Pryce Beshoory got a strikeout to end the game. ‘‘It was a lot of fun. It’s like driving a Corvette on an icy parking lot, right,’’ skipper Mike Orlando asked rhetorically. Nate Klein had fun, too, scoring Connecticut’s first run in the bottom off the second of the opener before making a nice catch to his left at third base on a line drive to save a possible extra-base hit. Klein finished 2 for 3. The 12-year-old Klein was so giddy after the second inning that he danced atop third base as he waited for the next frame to start. ‘‘I wasn’t really paying a lot of attention, but all of sudden there was a line drive coming at me,’’ Klein said. ‘‘I just stuck my glove out.’’ Nick Nardone went 5 2-3 innings in Connecticut’s win, striking out 10 without walking a hitter. The game also had the first manag- er’s replay challenge, a new wrinkle for this year’s tournament. Washing- ton skipper Kai Nahaku lost the chal- lenge after disputing an out call at home that would have given his team the lead. homer in 16 games. Westbrook, the last Car- dinals pitcher to win, allowed three runs on seven hits in six innings. The right-hander was in trouble in four innings, stranding two runners in the first and fifth, giving up two runs on four hits in the second, and surrendering Sandoval’s 10th homer in the third. The Giants had four hits in a stretch of five at-bats in the second, including Bumgarner’s second career RBI on a single he bounced up the middle and Posey’s RBI double. Sandoval homered for the second straight game and fourth time in eight games, a stretch that fol- lowed a 47-game homer- less drought. Huff had been 1 for 14 against the Cardi- nals before ending a 69 at- bat homer drought with his 21st in the seventh off Blake Hawksworth, and reached base four times adding a single and two walks. (Continued from page 1B) first to nearly double up Kouzmanoff. Pennington and Coco Crisp pulled off a double steal in the third, giving them each 20 stolen bases this year. That put Pennington on third following his one-out double and he and Crisp scored moments later on Barton’s hit. Davis leads the A’s with 36 steals and this marks the first time since 1992 three A’s players have stolen 20 or more bases in a season. Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson had 48 that season and was joined by Willie Wilson (28) and Lance Blankenship (21). A’s starter Vin Mazzaro saw his winless stretch extend to five starts dating to a victory July 24 against the Chicago White Sox. He allowed three hits and struck out five over 6 1-3 inning but saw his pitch count climb in a hurry with four walks. No. 1 Serena Williams pulls out of US Open By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer Serena Williams withdrew from the U.S. Open on Friday, saying she still is recovering from surgery to repair cuts on her right foot. The top-ranked Williams has won three titles at Flushing Meadows, part of her 13 Grand Slam singles champi- onships, the most among active women. Last year, she lost in the U.S. Open semifinals after a tirade at a line judge over a foot-fault call, an outburst that drew a record fine. ‘‘It is with much frustration and deep sadness that I am having to pull out of the U.S. Open,’’ Williams said in a state- ment released by her publicist. She is the first No. 1 woman to miss the U.S. Open since the rankings began in 1975, according to the U.S. Tennis Association. Williams said doctors advised her not to play so her foot can heal, and she called missing the tournament ‘‘one of the most devastating moments of my career.’’ The 28-year-old American reportedly was hurt by a bro- ken glass at a restaurant while she was in Munich last month — shortly after winning her fourth Wimbledon singles title on July 3, and before playing in an exhibition match against Kim Clijsters that drew a tennis-record crowd of 35,681 in Brussels on July 8. Williams had surgery in Los Angeles on July 15. She already had pulled out of three hard-court tournaments she was scheduled to enter in preparation for the U.S. Open and also skipped playing World TeamTennis. Williams’ withdrawal also means she won’t team with older sister Venus to defend the doubles title they won in New York last year.