And only 118 pitches tonight...

The Giants have decided to keep Tim Lincecum on four days' rest next week to give him two more starts after tonight. Getting a Cy Young Award apparently trumps the hopes of the Giants' franchise going forward. Lincecum should have pitched only once more because of the Giants' off day Monday, but he'll go Tuesday and Sunday. Jonathan Sanchez loses a start as a result. This likely means that Lincecum will finish with the year at 225-230 innings pitched. The Giants shut him down after 177 1/3 innings in 2007.
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Bruce Bochy: is oxygen getting to his brain?

Tim Lincecum's first career complete game was a 138-pitch shutout of the Padres on Saturday. Lincecum is an incredible pitcher. We're really hoping that's still the case in a few years, but we're becoming more skeptical every time Bruce Bochy sends him back out for that one extra inning. Does anyone really think the NL's ERA leader needs a confidence boost at this point? Why on earth send him back out to pitch the ninth in a 7-0 game when he's already thrown 118 pitches? He just threw 127 pitches on Monday. He had an 132-pitch outing on Aug. 27 (and followed it up with one of his worst starts of the year). Lincecum gave up two hits in the ninth tonight, bringing the Padres' total for the night up to four. He ended up striking out 12. It was an outstanding performance. However, it wouldn't have been any less impressive had he left after eight.
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Bruce Bochy: not exactly brimming wiff brainz

Tim Lincecum took a shutout into the ninth inning Monday and ended up allowed two runs -- one earned -- in 8 1/3 innings in a win over the Diamondbacks. Lincecum, who started the ninth with a 6-0 lead, threw 127 pitches to help the Giants improve to 17 games under .500. We'd hate to see what kind of workload the team would be saddling him with if it was actually in contention...
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Mama Smiff doesn't believe in pitch counts...

"Why did Charlie Manuel take Cole Hamels out when he was pitching so well? Surely he could have gone one more inning to get to Brad Lidge. What a waste of good pitching. What bad managing. What a bunch of clod relievers."

Clod relievers led by terminal SUCKS sufferer Ryan Madson, who totally, totally SUCKED!
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