Lincecum rocked, Giants fall to Rockies 17-8

BOX SCORE
DENVERTim Lincecum does not have the shingles. But he had a bad case of the doubles and triples Wednesday night.In what ranked as the shortest start of his career, Lincecum couldnt escape the third inning as the Colorado Rockies pounded him for six earned runs.Whatever Lincecum contracted proved contagious to the rest of the pitching staff, too. The Giants took their ace off the hook by rallying from a 6-0 deficit to take a 7-6 lead, but the Rockies kept right on bashing to take a 17-8 victory on a vintage, pre-humidor night at Coors Field.Starting pitching report: Lincecum had so much trimmed away at the barber shop, you could see the back of his neck for the first time in years. The Colorado Rockies proceeded to step on it.The two-time Cy Young Award winner retired just seven of 17 batters while failing to complete three innings for the first time in 157 career starts. Lincecums fastball was in the 90-92 mph range most of the night but the real issue was the many changeups he left up in the zone. Seven of the eight hits he allowed came on offspeed pitches, including all five in the third inning as the Rockies blitzed him from the game.Lincecum said this spring that he planned to pitch to contact. This is not what he had in mind. In two starts, he has a 12.91 ERA and has allowed 14 hits and three walks in 7.2 innings. Opponents have a .368 average against him; Lincecum entered the year with a career .223 OBA.Carlos Gonzalez tripled twice against Lincecum, who looked most disconsolate in the third when catcher Hector Sanchez couldnt block a wild pitch that scored a run.Lincecums outing could have been worse. He was pulled after walking Chris Nelson to load the bases in the third. Right-hander Dan Otero stranded all three inherited runners by getting opposing pitcher Jeremy Guthrie to hit into a double play. If not fot Oteros sinker, Lincecum might have eclipsed his career high of seven earned runs.
Bullpen report: Guillermo Mota and Jeremy Affeldt combined to allow 12 hits to the 23 batters they faced. Anything else you want to know?Well, OK. Brian Wilson made his 2012 debut. The bearded wonder allowed a run on a hit and a walk, but topped out at 95 mph and looked healthy.At the plate: Well, the Rockies didnt have all the fun. The Giants sure enjoyed themselves while they erased a 6-0 deficit in a seven-run fourth inning, which Nate Schierholtz and Brandon Crawford touched off with back-to-back home runs. Pablo Sandoval hit an RBI double and Gregor Blanco drew a pinch walk to load the bases for Hector Sanchez, who hit a two-run single. Blanco scored the tiebreaking run on Schierholtzs sacrifice fly.Schierholtz also hit a home run leading off the seventh inning. It was his second career multi-homer game.Brandon Belt entered as part of a double-switch in the third and promptly exited in another double-switch in the fifth. He struck out and walked in two trips.And Buster Posey, who didnt start because of the shingles, hit a deep fly out as a pinch hitter in the eighth.The Rockies? Well, they were 19-for-32 through just five innings. Thats a .594 average. They finished with 22 hits. Well spare you all the play-by-play.
In the field: Brett Pill committed two errors on a hideously ugly play in the fifth inning. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:Michael Cuddyer on first. Todd Helton on second. Two outs. Ramon Hernandez singles up the middle. Helton scores. Pill cuts off the throw from center, lets the ball tick off his glove. Error as Hernandez takes second. Cuddyer dashes for the plate. Hector Sanchez makes a nice sliding scoop and throw to Affeldt covering home. Cuddyer caught in a rundown. Affeldt throws too early to third base. Pablo Sandoval throws home. Pill drops the ball. Error No.2. Cuddyer scores. Pill throws to third base, where shortstop Crawford is covering. Hernandez overslides the bag, yet somehow avoids Crawfords tag. At least thats how the umpire saw it. No outs on the play.As bad as that was, the most damaging error came leading off the bottom of the fourth. Thats when second baseman Emmanuel Burriss bobbled, then threw wide to allow Marco Scutaro to reach. The Giants had just taken a 7-6 lead. The error opened the door for a three-run inning as Colorado wrested it back.Oh yeah, and Ryan Theriot ended up in left field for the first time since 2007. It was that kind of night.Attendance: The Rockies announced 30,337 paid. The seventh-inning stretch came just in time to avoid thousands of cases of deep-vein thrombosis.Up next: The Giants and Rockies complete their three-game series onThursday (first pitch at 12:10 PDT) with a matchup for the ages. Or about the ages, at least.When 22-year-old Madison Bumgarner takes on 49-year-old Jamie Moyer, it will be the third largest age difference between opposing starting pitchers in major league history, and the largest in nearly five decades. The only instances with a wider age gap both involve Satchel Paige, who was 59 years old when he started for the Kansas City As in 1965.Moyer was 26 years, 256 days old on the day Bumgarner was born. With a victory, Moyer will become the oldest pitcher in major league history to win a game.The way Wednesday nights game dragged on, Moyer might have made it to 50 before lobbing his next pitch.