National League Preview from The Sports Network
Saturday, April 28th
(All times Eastern)
San Diego Padres (7-14) at San Francisco Giants (10-10), 9:05 p.m.
Probable Starting Pitchers: San Diego - Anthony Bass (1-2, 2.33)
San Francisco - Tim Lincecum (1-2, 8.20)
(Sports Network) - It might not have been vintage Tim Lincecum, but it's the
closest the former Cy Young Award winner has gotten this season.
The right-hander will try to build off his first victory of 2012 this evening
as the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres meet for the second contest
of a three-game series.
The 2008 and '09 recipient of the National League Cy Young, Lincecum was
pitching to a 10.54 earned run average with an 0-2 record through his first
three starts prior to winning the opener of a doubleheader against the Mets on
Monday. Lincecum gave up just one run and struck out a season-high eight
batters, but also gave up four walks and five hits over just five innings of
work.
Still, it was enough to give the 27-year-old a bit of relief afterwards.
"I can't always expect the big results right out of the gate," said Lincecum
of earning his first win of the season. "Baby steps ... and like I said, I'll
take what I got right now."
Lincecum has gotten plenty of wins over his career versus the Padres. He went
4-1 with a 1.64 ERA in five starts against them last season and sports a
career mark of 9-4 with a 1.96 ERA in 18 matchups.
While the 2006 former first-round pick has plenty of experience against the
Padres, San Diego's Anthony Bass will face the Giants for the first time as a
starter.
Bass has hurled 8 1/3 scoreless innings of work over four relief appearances
against San Francisco and began this season in the bullpen before moving into
the rotation due to injury.
The 24-year-old righty won for the first time in three starts on Sunday,
beating the Phillies while yielding one unearned run on three hits and five
walks. He struck out seven over six innings and survived three errors by the
Padres in addition to his numerous walks.
"Anthony threw the ball well when he needed to," manager Bud Black said on his
team's website of Bass, who was making his sixth career start. "As the game
went on, he smoothed out some things in his delivery and became efficient. He
escaped some jams with some pitches."
The Padres drew first blood in this series on Friday night, riding six solid
innings from Cory Luebke and Nick Hundley's four-hit game to a 5-3 victory.
Luebke scattered seven hits while striking out three over 100 pitches and
Huston Street tossed a perfect bottom of the ninth to record his third save of
the year.
"Anytime you throw that many pitches early you have to find a way to get as
many innings as you can out of your arm," said Luebke. "I just wanted to try
to get through six and turn it over to those guys (the bullpen) because
they've been lights out for us."
Hundley finished with an RBI and a run scored while Chase Headley scored twice
and also knocked in a run to help the Padres earn their second straight
victory and fourth in six games.
Eric Hacker took the loss in his first major league start after yielding three
runs on eight hits. Hacker did fan seven while his batterymate Buster Posey
belted a solo home run and knocked in two of the Giants' three runs, but San
Francisco lost for the third time in four games.
"For you to have a good year, a winning year, you need the timely hits,"
remarked Giants manager Bruce Bochy. "We have talked about this in the past
and you're hoping that doesn't get inside their head and they go up there with
the confidence that they're going to get it done."
Pablo Sandoval, meanwhile, continues to get it done for the Giants. He
extended his franchise-record hitting streak to open a season to 20 games with
a single in the third inning and is hitting .329 (27-for-82) on the season
with three homers and 13 RBI.
He is also only two games behind his career-best hitting streak, a 22-gamer he
logged from June 19-July 30 of last season.
The Giants won 12 of 18 versus the Padres last season.
04/28 10:35:37 ET

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