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Phillies' offense too much for Lincecum to handle in debut

May 7, 2007 - 6:50 AM SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- San Francisco Giants Rookie Tim Lincecum took very little time to show he was ready for his major league debut. The Philadelphia Phillies showed him he still has work to do.

Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino each hit two-run homers as the Phillies downed the San Francisco Giants, 8-5, in Lincecum's major league debut and the finale of the four-game series on Sunday.

In the first inning, Lincecum flashed the pitching prowess expected of the 10th overall pick in the 2006 draft, as well as some nerves.

The 22-year-old phenom allowed a leadoff single to Jimmy Rollins before surrendering Victorino's first homer of the season, a two-run shot to right to give the Phillies an early 2-0 advantage.

"I know I didn't have my best stuff out there today and I battled and that's what I tried to do after that first inning," Lincecum said. "I knew things weren't going to go so hot after giving up two runs but I tried to minimize the damage and work within myself."

Lincecum recovered by striking out Chase Utley, Howard and Pat Burrell in succession to end the 27-pitch frame. The righthander surrendered five runs - four earned - and five hits and five strikeouts. However, he struggled with his command walking five and throwing 100 pitches in 4 1/3 innings.

"He's going to be fine," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "His stuff is electric and he made a couple of mistakes but he showed what a great arm he's got. I thought he did a pretty good job.

"He just made two mistakes there and, for his debut, I thought he threw the ball well. We got back in the game and it got away from us but he showed the kind of stuff that he has, he just needs to get settled in and use all his pitches and he'll be fine."

Howard and Victorino spoke glowingly of Lincecum's potential.

"He's got great stuff," Howard said. "He's got a 98-99 mph fastball and a pretty good hammer (curveball), too. Once he learns how to use it, he's going to be deadly."

"He's very firm and he's got good stuff," Victorino said. "He's going to be here for a while and he's going to get his opportunity to pitch here and do some good things."

After Omar Vizquel's RBI double - his 2,500th hit - put the Giants up by a 3-2 in the second inning, Howard followed a walk to Utley with a two-run shot to center to stake the Phillies to a 4-3 lead in the third.

Giving up two runs twice in separate innings was a new experience for the Giants' prized prospect. In 31 innings at Class AAA Fresno before his promotion, Lincecum allowed just one run on a sacrifice fly and struck out 46 over five starts on his way to recording a 4-0 record and 0.29 ERA.

"I'm was going to take this start as any other start, not get myself too psyched out or anything like that over the situation," Lincecum said. "People go out there expecting a lot from themselves and I did, too. I wanted to go out there and give my team a chance to win. Who doesn't want to throw scoreless innings? But that's not the way it goes all the time."

The Phillies prize prospect from a season ago, Cole Hamels (4-1), battled through three Philadelphia errors, including one of his own, to allow five runs - three earned - and eight hits with two walks and nine strikeouts. The 23-year-old lefthander's 52 strikeouts this season ranks second in the National League behind San Diego's Jake Peavy (56).

"It was new in the case with more cameras and more publicity," Hamels said of the game being televised nationally. "It puts a little extra strain just for myself just because I expect so much out of myself.

"I want to do well and, knowing it is on TV, I want to even do better than I possibly could just to let people out there see and have a good time and see the excitement that I have every time I step out on the mound."

Geoff Geary pitched a perfect eighth before giving way to closer Brett Myers, who pitched around a two-out walk in the ninth to notch his second save in as many chances.

Following a two-run fifth by the Giants in which Ray Durham and Todd Linden hit RBI singles to tie the score at 5-5, Vinnie Chulk (0-2) was saddled with the loss as he gave up Rollins' RBI triple and Utley's run-scoring double in the sixth in relief of Lincecum.

Rich Aurilia and Kevin Frandsen each tallied two hits for San Francisco, which has dropped six of their last 10 contests after winning a season-high eight straight games.

Giants' slugger Barry Bonds was given a planned day off and will likely resume his chase of Hank Aaron's all-time home run record when San Francisco hosts the New York Mets on Monday. Bond's 744 homers are just 11 shy of Aaron's record.