The Padres and Tim Lincecum have a tenuous relationship, at best. In his career, the Giants right-hander has tortured San Diego's professional baseball team.
It makes sense for "The Freak" to have bigger numbers against the Padres than most other teams. The unbalanced schedule leads to more meetings with division rivals. But, even among National League West teams, Lincecum has been better against the Padres.
He has more wins, strikeouts and no-hitters against the Friars than any other team in Major League Baseball. On Sunday at Petco Park, he added to two of those categories.
For a while it looked like he might make it a sweep.
Lincecum led the Giants to a 5-3 win in the series finale against the Padres. He did not allow a hit for the first three innings, prompting folks working in the press box (yes, professional journalists) to start a "No-hitter pool." The buy-in was $5. Just pick a number and if that player broke up the no-no you win the pot.
I don't know if anyone had Jake Goebbert's number four, but in the 4th inning the rookie lined a solid single to right field. Lincecum ended up going 6.1 innings, striking out six and allowing one run on a Brooks Conrad home run that turned out to be the last pitch he threw.
It was the first home run in a Padres uniform for the Monte Vista High School alum.
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But, it was not enough to get fellow new guy Jesse Hahn off the hook. The rookie right-hander was not as sharp as he'd been in winning his previous four starts, but did not throw poorly. Hahn gave up three runs in 7.0 innings. At one point he retired 11 straight Giants hitters.
The good news for the Padres (other than Tyson Ross earning a spot on his first All-Star team) is they don't have to deal with "The Freak" again until the middle of September.
On Monday the Friars start a seven game road trip in Colorado. Ian Kennedy will get the start against Tyler Matzek.
