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Lincecum hands Dempster rare home loss

Jul 13, 2008 - 11:38 PM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Tim Lincecum staked his claim to start for the National League in Tuesday's All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. The Chicago Cubs probably wouldn't disagree if he did get the assignment.

Lincecum handed Ryan Dempster his first home loss of the season Sunday as the San Francisco Giants recorded a 4-2 win over the Cubs.

Prior to Sunday, Dempster (10-4) had won all 10 of his starts this year at Wrigley Field, but he was outpitched by the slender Lincecum, who allowed one run and six hits with a walk and nine strikeouts.

"It's a good note to end (the first half) on and people can go home for the break in a happy mood," said Lincecum, who heads to New York with closer Brian Wilson, the other member of the Giants selected for the All-Star Game.

Lincecum rebounded from a rare bad outing on Tuesday, when he gave up four runs and nine hits over six innings in a 7-0 loss to the New York Mets. On Sunday, he shut down a team that has been tough to beat at home and lowered his ERA to 2.57 - the third-best mark in the NL.

"(A) large part (of his success) is me just finding consistency with my pitches," Lincecum added. "I have done that in a majority of my starts."

Dempster yielded four runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings as the Cubs dropped to a still NL-best 37-12 at home. Three of the runs he gave up came in the third.

"I wanted to keep that (home) streak going," Dempster said. "Today was a tough one and it was a good matchup. I let them put up a crooked number in one inning and that was it."

Lincecum also helped his cause with his bat as his sinking line drive with one out in the third got past right field Mark DeRosa - who tried to make a shoe-string catch - for a triple to score the first run of the game.

"It was a slider and I just got lucky," Lincecum added. "It skipped past (DeRosa's) glove."

Dempster then walked Fred Lewis, who stole second. Lincecum and Lewis scored on Ray Durham's single that made it 3-0.

Lincecum limited the Cubs to an RBI double by Jim Edmonds in the fourth, a run the Giants got back in the seventh on Lewis' RBI triple.

"I thought the humidity might get to (Lincecum) but to his credit, he went out and threw 120-something pitches (actually 116)," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "It was eight real good innings."

After threatening in the eighth, the Cubs made it interesting in the ninth, closing within 4-2 on an RBI single All-Star catcher Geovany Soto that left runners on the corners with one out. But Wilson retired the next two batters for his league-leading 25th save.

The Cubs (57-38) still have a lot to feel good about at the break as they boast the best record in the major leagues and own a 4.5-game lead over St. Louis in the NL Central.

"Adding Rich Harden and getting (injured) Alfonso Soriano back will help a lot, too," DeRosa said.