Lincecum Looking Like "The Franchise"

The Giants two best pitchers at the moment helped them to a series win in Milwaukee over the weekend. Noah Lowry won his 10th game on Friday as he turned in another solid, quality start. Tim Lincecum turned in his 5th straight quality start on Saturday and he did it in impressive fashion going 8 shutout innings while striking out 8 and only allowing 5 baserunners against one of the best lineups in the National League. Those who had their questions about whether Tim Lincecum should be sent back down to triple A or be sent to the bullpen when he was struggling a few weeks back are now seeing the answer. The rook has now turned his season around in a few short starts as he's knocked about 2 points off his era in the last month while continuing to strike out over a batter per inning. Lincecum is really starting to find his groove. With the season pretty much all but over as far as contending for the playoffs, I like focusing on the young players, and I'm definitely looking forward to the final two months of Lincecum's rookie season. He looks even more dominant than Matt Cain did after his first couple months in the big leagues and that is really saying something. I've noticed in his recent starts that Lincecum's control has been a lot better and he was keeping balls low in the zone when he was missing. When he's down at the knees with that 97 mph two seam fastball, and controlling his curve and split, he's almost untouchable. It's shown, as he's only allowed 15 hits in his last 27 innings pitched.

In the latest on the "Bonds Watch", Barry Bonds went homeless over the weekend and returns to AT&T park still 2 home runs shy of tying Hank Aaron. With a seven game homestand on the horizon, It's going to be very interesting to see if the next time Bonds goes back on the road, it will be as the all-time home run king. I thought he would have hit at least one in Milwaukee over the weekend and would have come back to San Francisco just 1 shy from 755, but he didn't and now he'll have about a week to try and hit 3 home runs if he wants to try and break this thing at home. Isn't it fitting that the first stop on the road after this homestand is going to be down in Southern California for 3 vs. the Dodgers? It is very possible that Bonds makes history is the spot where he's been hated the most. I predict he'll break it at home, but not until the first homestand in August.