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Lincecum, Rowand help Giants edge Braves

Aug 7, 2008 - 12:22 AM By Ryan Leong PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- It has been a sub-par season for the San Francisco Giants, but the one bright spot has been the emergence of Tim Lincecum as a bona fide ace.

The righthander tossed eight effective innings and Aaron Rowand drove in three runs Wednesday as the Giants recorded a 3-2 victory in the rubber game of a three-game series with the Atlanta Braves.

Lincecum (12-3) allowed five hits and struck out eight before closer Brian Wilson tossed a perfect ninth to notch his National League-leading 32nd save.

Although Lincecum had allowed just two runs or fewer in each of last two starts, this was his first win since July 13 at Chicago.

"I felt like this outing wasn't bad," Lincecum said. "We got the win, that's the biggest part, but I had too many walks, that's just way too many walks for me. And especially when I'm talking about being effective with my pitches, those are going to kill you.

"Granted, I got lucky and got a couple of quick outs and got that quick inning, but still the same things run through my head, trying to throw strikes and trying to minimize my walks."

Rowand belted a two-run home run in the first inning and lifted a sacrifice fly in the second against Braves starter Chuck James (2-5), who surrendered five hits in four frames.

The Giants are last in the majors in home runs and Rowand became their first player to reach double digits.

"It doesn't matter. You can't try to hit home runs in this ballpark, that's for sure," Rowand said. "You can try to go out and hit line drives and try to get base hits and for me, I don't pull a ton of baseballs. I've always been a gap-to-gap type guy, center field, left center and right-center.

"If they come, they come; I stopped worrying about that a long time ago. I'm just trying to get hits and drive in runs."

However, Atlanta's bullpen shut the door on the Giants. San Francisco mounted a threat in the sixth as Fred Lewis led off the inning with a triple to the deepest part of the park in right-center.

Rich Aurilia followed with a flyout to right but the ball wasn't hit deep enough and Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur fired a one-hop throw to the plate to easily get Lewis.

"A great throw, nailed him at home," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "Our bullpen was outstanding and (James) was a little bit better than he was the last time."

In the eighth, Lewis doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch. But once again, the Giants failed to score, keeping it a one-run lead.

Randy Winn went 4-for-4 with two runs and collected his 1,500th career hit in the process.

"He's swinging the bat well right now," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He plays both sides of the ball so well and it doesn't matter where you hit him, leadoff or hitting third, he's so valuable, he runs well and he's got the whole game."

Lewis added two hits for San Francisco, which survived RBI groundouts by Yunel Escobar and Mark Kotsay in the fifth and sixth, respectively.

The Braves are just 19-37 away from Turner Field, one of the worst road records in the majors.

"Anytime you lose it's not good," said Braves catcher Brian McCann who had three of Atlanta's five hits. "(Lincecum) held us to two runs, one better than us."