Giants 0 - 3 Nationals
Final
  for this game

Giants send Lincecum to the hill in opener with Nats

Apr 29, 2011 - 3:07 PM (Sports Network) - Two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum can make it three straight wins on the road tonight when his San Francisco Giants open a four-game series against the hosting Washington Nationals.

The 26-year-old dropped his initial start of the season on Opening Day at Los Angeles, but has since traveled to San Diego and Colorado for triumphs while allowing just six hits and two runs in 14 2/3 innings.

He's picked up a loss and a no-decision in two home starts, including his last outing, a 5-2 loss to Atlanta in which he allowed six hits and five runs in 6 1/3 innings.

Lincecum is 1-1 in four career starts against Washington with a 3.60 earned run average across 25 innings.

The Nationals go with veteran righty Jason Marquis, who's won two straight starts after opening the year with a pair of no-decisions.

The 32-year-old went six innings and scattered eight hits with three runs in a 6-3 victory at Pittsburgh on April 24, a week after he'd gone seven innings in an 8-4 home win against Milwaukee.

Limited to just two wins in 13 starts last season, Marquis is two victories away from 100 in a career that began when he was a supplemental draft pick of the Braves in 1996.

He is 4-3 in 11 career meetings with the Giants with a 2.77 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 74 2/3 innings.

On Thursday in Washington, Livan Hernandez threw eight strong innings to lead the Nationals over the Mets, 4-3, salvaging the finale of a three-game series.

Hernandez (3-2) allowed three runs -- two earned -- on seven hits and a walk while striking out five. He also had an RBI and a run scored.

Ian Desmond went 2-for-4 with a triple and a homer for Washington, which had dropped three straight and six of its previous seven games.

In Pittsburgh, Aaron Rowand went 2-for-5 with three runs batted in, as the Giants earned a 5-2 decision over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the rubber match of a three-game set at PNC Park.

Pablo Sandoval also knocked in a run for the Giants, who won for only the second time in their last seven games overall.

Ryan Vogelsong (1-0), starting his first game since 2004 while with the Pirates, tossed 5 2/3 effective innings. The right-hander allowed two runs on four hits, walked two and struck out eight.

Brian Wilson recorded his seventh save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning.

The Giants won four of six against the Nationals a season ago.






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