Pitching battle extraordinaire

by jonk on May 5, 2008 12:57 AM EDT

Winner: Tim Lincecum, by unanimous decision

Sorry Cole, your team may have won the game, but Timmah won the pitching matchup against these two youngsters.

The lines:

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	Season ERA
T. Lincecum	6.0	6	4	0	2	5	0	1.49

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	Season ERA
C. Hamels	6.0	7	4	4	0	5	1	3.10

Ignore the unearned runs as it is a silly stat. Sure, the inning should have been over, but the pitcher STILL gave up a bunch of hits and runs. Also ignoring the season ERA, the lines look very similiar. One more hit for Hamels, 2 walks for Lincecum, both went 6, got 5 Ks and gave up 4 runs (1 Cole Hamels homerun).

So, how can I say that Lincecum won so handily? Easy...

Lineup

San Francisco Giants @ Philadelphia Phillies

05/04/08 1:35 PM EDT

San Francisco Giants	Philadelphia Phillies
Eugenio Velez - 2B	Shane Victorino - CF
Emmanuel Burriss - SS	Eric Bruntlett - SS
Randy Winn - RF	Chase Utley - 2B
Aaron Rowand - CF	Ryan Howard - 1B
Jose Castillo - 3B	Pat Burrell - LF
Rich Aurilia - 1B	Geoff Jenkins - RF
Dan Ortmeier - LF	Pedro Feliz - 3B
Steve Holm - C	Carlos Ruiz - C
Tim Lincecum - P	Cole Hamels - P

Yeah, Cole struck out 5 and gave up 4 runs to a lineup that features Eugenio Velez leading off, Aaron Rowand batting 4th, Rich Aurilia batting 6th and I have no idea who their 7th and 8th hole hitters are. Lincecum did again a lineup featuring Utley, Howard and Burrell, 3 hitters who would automatically be the best on the Giants. Let me rank the 16 starters (forturnately, Fred Lewis didn't start).

Utley
Burrell
Howard
Rowand
Victorino
Winn
Jenkins
Ortmeier
Castillo
Feliz
Ruiz
Aurilia
Burris
Velez
Bruntlett
Holm

That gives us top 3, 4 of the top 5 and 5 of the top 7 hitters playing today. Tim pitched ok, although no earned runs, Cole pitched pretty crappily giving up 4 runs to this awful lineup. Cole pitched well his last time out, but I am wondering if the 121 pitches he threw against Milwaukee is catching up to him a bit.