• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Young outpitches Lincecum in Padres' win

Apr 13, 2009 - 1:05 AM SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The San Diego Padres are feeling good, even if it's only been one week.

Chris Young pitched seven strong innings, Nick Hundley had a career-high four hits and San Diego beat Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants, 6-1, on Sunday.

The Padres swept the three-game series and have won four straight overall to raise their record to 5-2. It is the first time San Diego has been three games over .500 since the end of the 2007 season.

For a team that was picked to finish last in the National League West by most experts, the opening week of the season couldn't have gone much better.

"A lot of people out there don't have high expectations for us," Young said. "It is a long season. We'll temper the excitement. But I think it is good for us to get some confidence and really believe in ourselves."

Young (2-0) allowed an unearned run and four hits. The righthander, who retired the first 12 batters, struck out seven and did not walk a batter.

Lincecum (0-2) had another rough outing after he tied his career low by lasting just three innings in last Monday's season-opening 10-6 win over Milwaukee. The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, gave up four runs and a career-high 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings.

"Right now there's a little more negatives on my side than usual," Lincecum said. "I've just got to go down and take a look at what's going on and figure something out."

Chase Headley homered for the second straight day and Luis Rodriguez had two sacrifice flies for San Diego, which finished with 13 hits.

Lincecum had been dominant in his previous eight starts against the Padres, going 3-1 with a microscopic 0.95 ERA.

"He hasn't gotten into his good groove yet," San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. "His fastball command is not sharp and that's what is hurting him. As good as he is, he really needs to do that."

San Diego got to San Francisco's ace for three runs in the third. Adrian Gonzalez singled in Jody Gerut and Headley followed with a drive into the short porch down the right-field line.

"That was a great start and you need that against a guy like Lincecum," San Diego manager Bud Black said. "You know his history against us has been such that I'm sure he has a lot of confidence. But early on, we had a sense that it was going to be a little bit different today."

Hundley led off the sixth with a triple and scored on Rodriguez's flyball to right. Hundley singled in a run in the seventh and Rodriguez added his second sacrifice fly.

San Francisco scored its only run in the fifth inning when Headley mishandled Eugenio Velez's single to left, allowing Bengie Molina to come home.

The Giants have lost three straight and four of five.

Notes: Lincecum was 13-3 last season in games he started following a San Francisco loss. ... Young beat the Giants for just the second time in nine career starts. Young, 2-4 against San Francisco, lost both his starts to the Giants last season.