SEATTLE -- The Giants are desperate for Tim Lincecum to pitch them to a victory for the first time since April 24, lest his eight-start funk turn into a complete tailspin.
They'll have their best defensive team behind him, with Joaquin Arias at third base, Brandon Crawford at short and Pablo Sandoval as the designated hitter.
But Giants manager Bruce Bochy said he didn't decide to DH Sandoval for that reason. In fact, he likes the way Sandoval has bounced back at third base the past couple days.
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"I do, and I've said it's only going to get better with him," Bochy said. "The more playing time he gets, the better he'll get."
"Is it our best defensive team? Yeah," Bochy added. "But it's not necessarily for Timmy. I wouldn't do that for one pitcher over another."
Bochy said that having Sandoval DH would allow him to do extra conditioning work pregame and postgame.
"But this is more about winning the game," the manager said, adding that he wants to keep Arias involved.
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Arias has a career-high nine-game hitting streak, and even though he's just 1 for his last 27 with runners in scoring position, Bochy said he's done a good job moving runners. He hit a sacrifice fly in Friday night's victory.
Bochy's other DH option was an outfielder to get Nate Schierholtz in there, but he'd rather play Arias. Besides, none of the starting outfielders wanted to DH. They all told Bochy they'd prefer to play the field.
With that, Bochy thanked reporters and jumped up from his seat in the dugout, waving his arms.
"No Timmy questions!" he said in jest.
Lincecum will be supported on other ways, too. The amount of orange and black here at Safeco Field is overwhelming. Clearly, there are a lot of Giants fans in the Pacific Northwest. Former managing partner and Seattle resident Bill Neukom is one of them. He visited the team and leaned on the cage during batting practice.
The Mariners figured out that Lincecum will be the 10th Washington native to start against the club. The others: Todd Stottlemyre, Jeremy Bonderman, Jon Lester, Adam Eaton, Dana Eveland, Mark Hendrickson, Bruce Kison, Glendon Rusch and Dave Hamilton.