Big Time Timmy Jim Gets His Freak On

This just in: that Lincecum Kid may turn out to be halfway decent.

The 2010 season is being billed as The Year of the Pitcher. Roy Halladay had certainly served notice that the postseason should expect no different. But did anyone anticipate this?

How many pundits did I read over the past three days who were convinved that Tim Lincecum would wilt in the harsh glare of the postseason. He'd faltered in his Major League debut. He's gacked up in his first All-Star Game. I'm shocked no one mentioned the mess he'd made of his first diaper. Certainly the playoff  pressure would cause another meltdown.

Yeah, right. And Jose Guillen is a 100-meter runner (well he is, it's just that he cuts it up into 30-yard segments that take three weeks).

What can I say? Lincecum really is a freak. A complete game, two hits, no runs, a single-postseason-game franchise record of 14 whiffs. Yeah, he's about as afraid of the liimelight as Paris Hilton.

After givng up a double to start the game, Lincecum never allowed the Braves so much as a sniff. How good was he? He was so good that he took the mind of this perpetual worrier off the fact that, once again, the Giants offense stunk up the joint.

The only bright spot was young Buster Posey, who stepped to the plate swinging a bat with a lightning bolt and "Wonder Boy" carved into the barrell and launched a shot into the light tower that rained sparks on the....

Okay, it wasn't Roy Hobbs dramatic. But Posey had a double and single, a (ehem) stolen base and scored the only run of the game. Two of the Giants' five hits came from a guy Brian Satan (stop that) Sabean said wasn't ready to replace Bengie Molina in April.

These two are giving experience a bad name. Who needs it? The old pros did little in this game. The youngsters carried the day. Robert Plant would agree: the kids are all right.

Interesting note: Over the past six years the teams that grabbed Game One of the Division Series are 21-3, and over on the AL side the Yanks and the Rangers are well on their way to improving that mark. Of course, Giants fans remember Jason Schmidt's masterpiece to open the 2003 NLDS, which ended three games later with JT Snow running in slow motion and the comic book Marlins going on to their second title.

Not counting on anything yet. Kharma has a way of slapping you in the face when you do that, and I'm convinced most successes are a cosmic set up for an eventual "up yours" where the Giants are involved. But damn, tonight feels good.

Thanks Timmy. For one night, the universe is as it should be.
 

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