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Giants-Athletics Preview

Jun 23, 2009 - 6:08 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

San Francisco (37-32) at Oakland (31-38), 10:05 p.m. EDT

Tim Lincecum's best work in interleague play has come against the Oakland Athletics.

The San Francisco Giants ace looks to win his third straight start against the Athletics when this three-game Bay Bridge series continues Tuesday night at McAfee Coliseum.

Lincecum (6-2, 2.72 ERA) is 2-0 with a 1.33 ERA and 22 strikeouts in three career starts against Oakland. In his other four interleague outings, he is 0-2 with a 7.23 ERA.

The right-hander has also logged 16 consecutive scoreless innings versus the Athletics (31-38). That includes his outing June 12 as he struck out eight in a seven-hitter for a 3-0 victory.

"His fastball was at 95 in the ninth inning. That speaks for itself," said A's manager Bob Geren. "He had everything working."

Lincecum's last start was one of his interleague losses Wednesday against the Los Angeles Angels. He gave up four runs over eight innings in a 4-3 defeat - his first since April 12.

The Oakland hitter with the most experience against Lincecum is left fielder Matt Holliday, who is 8 for 25 (.320) with one double, one RBI and nine strikeouts.

Lincecum is third in the majors with 112 strikeouts, including 17 in his last two starts.

Athletics rookie Vin Mazzaro (2-1, 1.75) will oppose Lincecum for the second time. He gave up three runs over six innings in the loss on June 12 after holding the Giants without a hit for the first four innings.

This will be Mazzaro's fifth career start. The 22-year-old right-hander did not allow any runs in his first two, and was solid his last time out Thursday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, yielding two runs over six innings before leaving without a decision in a 3-2 loss.

Oakland ended its five-game losing streak to San Francisco (37-32) with a 5-1 victory Monday. Bobby Crosby drove in three runs and Trevor Cahill won his third straight decision with seven sharp innings.

San Francisco had outscored Oakland 15-3 in a three-game sweep at AT&T Park from June 12-14. The Giants had a three-game winning streak snapped Monday and scored their only run on Travis Ishikawa's homer in the second inning.

"We know we're a better team than we showed when we went there," said Oakland reliever Brad Ziegler, who struck out four in two perfect innings Monday.

Everyone in the lineup for the A's except No. 9 hitter Jack Hannahan had a hit. Former Giant Rajai Davis singled, tripled, stole a base and scored two runs.

Oakland is putting together another solid June, going 12-9 after losing months in April and May. The A's, who have won nine of their last 12 home games, have finished with winning records in June each of the last seven seasons.

Giants shortstop Juan Uribe was scratched from the lineup Monday with a strained left hamstring. He may return to action Tuesday.