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Lincecum overpowering as Giants rout Diamondbacks

Jul 2, 2007 - 1:04 AM SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- "The Franchise" is back in form.

Rookie Tim Lincecum struck out a career-high 12 batters as the San Francisco Giants won a laugher, 13-0, over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday.

Flashing an overpowering fastball and sharp curveball, Lincecum (3-2) allowed three hits in seven dominating innings. He did not walk a batter and capped off his day by striking out the final two batters he faced.

"I've been struggling lately and its good to see a nice zero (walks) up there," Lincecum said. "I'm just trying to stay level-headed with (my confidence). It's a lot better after these last two outings. I kind of got better as the game went."

"Boy, what a great job he did, great stuff," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He's got the good fastball but he had a great curve today, had a great split and used them all. It's hard to pitch better than that.

"We got the runs we've been looking for a while and this is more like the offense we thought and something we will continue as we hit the second half."

The 23-year-old Lincecum almost got himself demoted to the minors with a string of poor outings, but he has quickly regained his confidence and turned in his second consecutive stellar outing.

"It was just the way things went and that's the game of baseball," Lincecum said. "That's how it goes and I just try to move on from it."

The Giants broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth. Barry Bonds walked and Ryan Klesko homered to the arcade in right field for a 2-0 lead.

"To go out there and have a game like that with the bats rolling and the way Lincecum pitched, you've got to pick it up and obviously we'd be a lot better if we played like that," Klesko said. "You're not going to go out there and score that many runs every game and the tight ballgames are the ones we really have to bear down and win."

Diamondbacks rookie starter Micah Owings (5-3) didn't make it past the fifth inning, when San Francisco tacked on six more runs.

"Both guys came as advertised for three (innings) and then it happened pretty quickly in the fourth," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "They got some better at-bats against him, the Klesko home run and then you just couldn't stop the bleeding."

Dave Roberts led off the frame with a triple to center field, Fred Lewis walked and Ray Durham legged out an infield single.

With the bases loaded, Bonds lined a double to right, scoring two runs. The double for Bonds was his 377th as a Giant, allowing him to pass his godfather, Hall of Famer Willie Mays, for first on San Francisco's franchise list.

Bonds also registered the 2,900 hit of his career leaving him only 100 shy of the coveted 3,000 plateau.

Klesko followed with an RBI single, prompting Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin to make a double switch. On the first pitch from reliever Edgar Gonzalez, catcher Bengie Molina cracked a three-run homer to left that broke the game open.

Owings lasted four-plus innings, allowing seven runs and eight hits. He walked three and struck out two.

"You saw the game, that's how it was going out there," Owings said. "I thought a couple of (calls) were questionable but that's going to happen. Those guys have a little more time than me and it's happened.

"It'll happen again but there's not much you can do about it, just got to keep throwing and doing the best you can."

The Giants didn't let up, padding the lead with two runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh en route to the blowout.

"This series, obviously after playing good ball against the Yankees and we thought we got something good going and then San Diego coming in beat us two out of three, was kind of a letdown," Klesko said. "We didn't give up and went right back after it and that shows you the character of this team and we know that this team is capable of playing better and that's what we've been doing the last couple of days."