SAN FRANCISCO — “Tiny Tim” stood about 10 feet tall Friday night at AT&T Park.
In a late-August game with the feel of an October classic, Giants 5-foot-10, 170-pound ace Tim Lincecum outdueled the Rockies’ Ubaldo Jimenez in the Giants’ 2-0 victory.
Lincecum’s eight-inning, four-hit performance sent the Rockies to their third straight defeat, turning the screws ever tighter in the National League wild-card race.
The Giants pulled within two games of the Rockies. In the NL West, the Rockies remained four behind the Dodgers, who fell 4-2 at Cincinnati. The Giants moved within six of the Dodgers.
Lincecum, the reigning Cy Young winner, was simply brilliant. One snapshot of that brilliance: In the sixth, he struck out Seth Smith looking on a 93 mph inside fastball. Smith, thinking he had earned a walk, moved back to the dugout looking like he’d seen a ghost.
Lincecum struck out eight, exacting a measure of revenge for last Sunday’s game at Coors Field when Jimenez bested him in a 4-2 Colorado victory. He improved to 13-4, his ERA a miniscule 2.33.
Linecum looked on track for a complete-game shutout, but he was lifted after eight because of his 127 pitches. Closer Brian Wilson came on and gave up a leadoff single to Todd Helton, but struck out Troy Tulowitzki, got Brad Hawpe out on a dangerously deep flyball to center and struck out Chris Iannetta, sending Giants fans into orbit.
In a game with no room for error, a misplaced, two-out pitch in the fifth – a 78 mph curveball – doomed Jimenez. Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco’s “Kung Fu Panda,” lifted it over the left-field wall for an opposite-field homer and a 1-0 Giants lead.
The Giants extended the lead in the sixth on Eugenio Velez’s single to score Eli Whiteside. Jimenez gave up seven hits in seven innings, losing for the first time since July 10, snapping his six-game winning streak.
Jimenez was resilient, pulling off an Alcatraz-style escape in the three of the first four innings.
In the first, the Giants had the bases loaded with one out before Jimenez induced Travis Ishikawa to pop out to Tulowitzki at short and then got Juan Uribe to ground out to Tulowitzki. The Giants stranded two more in the second, Jimenez striking out Edgar Renteria on a curveball to end the inning. In the fourth, Juan Uribe led off with a double that plopped to the ground about 8 feet from homeplate as Jimenez, Iannetta and third baseman Ian Stewart decided who should take it. Uribe got as far as third base but no further.
By the end of the fourth, the Giants were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, but when they finally got to Jimenez it was more than enough with Lincecum on the mound.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
