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Lincecum tries to find freak mode in Oakland

Jun 17, 2011 - 2:53 PM (Sports Network) - San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum hasn't won in each of his last three starts, going 0-1 with an uncharacteristic 9.39 ERA in that span. A matchup with the Oakland Athletics tonight in the opener of a three- game interleague set at the Coliseum could be exactly what Lincecum needs.

Lincecum was shelled for seven runs and seven hits in just four innings in Saturday's 10-2 drubbing at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds. The two-time NL Cy Young Award recipient has been reached for 16 runs over his three-game winless drought and fell to 5-5 in 14 starts while raising his earned run average from 2.85 to 3.41.

The right-hander has enjoyed pitching against the Athletics, going 5-0 with a 1.17 ERA in six starts, and beat them back on May 21 at AT&T Park. In the 3-0 win by the Bay, Lincecum tossed a three-hit shutout and struck out six batters without issuing a walk. He will make his third career start at the Coliseum, where he is 2-0 with a microscopic 0.56 ERA lifetime.

San Francisco is coming off Thursday's 3-2 loss in 10 innings at Arizona in which Santiago Casilla allowed Justin Upton's game-winning home run in the bottom of the 10th. Ryan Vogelsong started for the Giants and allowed the first two runs on six hits over six innings for the no-decision.

The defending World Series champions reached the scoreboard in the fifth inning, when Cody Ross scored on a throwing error, and later tied the game on Pat Burrell's sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth. Ross ended with two hits for the Giants, who were gunning for a three-game sweep of the Diamondbacks and had a three-game winning streak stopped. San Francisco is 1 1/2 games ahead of Arizona for the NL West lead and is still 10-5 in the past 15 games.

"With all we've been through, I like the way we're playing," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said after his club saw a five-game winning streak against the D'Backs come to an end. "And that's a tough stretch we had to go through."

Giants closer Brian Wilson is riding a 14 1/3 scoreless innings streak, going 1-0 with eight saves in that 13-game stretch. Ross is batting .327 this month with eight RBI, nine runs and 17 hits, including nine doubles. Huff is hitting .302 with two doubles, four home runs and 12 RBI in his last 15 games.

Oakland has won two in a row since losing three straight and 13 of 14 games, and is coming off back-to-back victories over the Kansas City Royals. After losing the opener of the three-game series, Oakland responded with a 2-1 win on Wednesday and an 8-4 victory Thursday afternoon.

Hideki Matsui homered and Jemile Weeks collected two hits and three RBI for Oakland, which is a mere 3-11 this month and got two hits apiece from Coco Crisp, Scott Sizemore and Kurt Suzuki. Sizemore scored three times in the win, while Matsui's home run was the 499th of his professional career between the major leagues and the Japanese Professional League.

Gio Gonzalez struck out 10 batters over six innings and allowed two runs on five hits and two walks for the win (6-5). Gonzalez also showed no signs of battling a cold.

"I wasn't feeling too good. I was under the weather," Gonzalez admitted. "I was battling a lot, but with the help of all our position players, I did my best to keep us in the game as long as possible."

A's youngster Graham Godfrey will make his second major league appearance tonight and debuted last Friday in a 7-5 win over the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. Godfrey, a right-hander, lasted 4 1/3 innings and gave up five runs and nine hits in the no-decision.

Godfrey will make his first start at the Coliseum.

"He had to work through that trepidation a little bit and was a little out of sorts for awhile, but came back and made the adjustments and gave us a chance to win a game," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "That's all you can ask from a guy who's making his first start. I think that it's much more comfortable his next time out and we look for him to build off of that."

San Francisco swept a three-game series versus Oakland from May 20-22 this season at AT&T Park and has won six straight in the series. The Giants are 13-4 in the previous 17 matchups between the two ballclubs.

The A's, of course, swept the Giants to win the 1989 World Series and are 136-115 against the National League. San Francisco owns a 116-111 mark in interleague play.