Giants Lineup: Seasoning behind Lincecum

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Programming Note: Giants-Marlins coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. today with Giants Pregame Live, only on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area

MIAMI -- Here's a stunning stat on the Giants rotation through 45 games, courtesy of numbers whiz Dave Feldman:

The Giants' starting pitchers have allowed a total of nine innings in which they gave up three runs or more. The breakdown:

Tim Lincecum 6
Matt Cain 1
Madison Bumgarner 1
Barry Zito 1
Ryan Vogelsong 0

(Lincecum's total already matches the number of three-plus run innings he allowed all last season. He had just six of them in 2010, too.)

Lincecum is 2-4 with a 6.04 ERA and is averaging 5 13 innings per start. The rest of the rotation is 15-10 with a 2.98 ERA and is averaging 6 23 innings per start.

It's easy to see where the air is escaping the balloon for the Giants, who haven't been able to get free of .500 land.

Lincecum will try once again to fight his way free of the big inning when he takes the mound today. The Giants will face another struggling ace in Marlins right-hander Josh Johnson, although he's been much better in his last two outings.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy stayed to plan and is starting Aubrey Huff at first base and Ryan Theriot at second base. The Giants simply aren't getting production at either position. I know that fans have voiced their displeasure over the way Bochy plays veterans, but it's time to see if either 30-something player has something left.

The lineup:

RF Gregor Blanco
SS Brandon Crawford
LF Melky Cabrera
C Buster Posey
CF Angel Pagan
1B Aubrey Huff
3B Joaquin Arias
2B Ryan Theriot
P Tim Lincecum

The Marlins lineup isn't out yet, but I'll post it on Twitter (@CSNBaggs) when I get it.

One more thing: Today is the one-year anniversary of Posey's collision at the plate. He just told the Palm Beach Post's Joe Capozzi that he still hasn't spoken to Scott Cousins, and has no plans to do so. Cousins is at Triple-A New Orleans.

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