Giants ace Tim Lincecum gets his turn tonight.
To pitch a no-hitter as Roy Halladay did in his postseason debutWednesday for the Philadelphia Phillies? Whoa, hold on there.
Now is a great time to temper those enormous expectations ofLincecum, who makes his first playoff start when the Giants host theAtlanta Braves in Game 1 of their National League Division Series.
Lincecum did not pitch great in his first big-league start. Or inhis first Giants season opener. Or in his first All-Star Game.
He made lackluster first impressions on those big stages.Tonight's platform looms larger.
He still may dazzle, as he has for most of his 3 1/2 -year reignas the Bay Area's most visible sports icon. Not many pitchers cansay they've stashed back-to-back Cy Young Awards in their car's
back seat.
Boom or bust, it will be fascinating to see how he embraces thisnext chapter in his baseball life. A chapter is all that is asked,whereas Halladay opted to write a historic novel with Wednesday's 4-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
Lincecum sure did not seem enthralled or inspired by Halladay'sperformance. Did he watch it?
'Yeah, I mean all the TVs were on showing it,' Lincecum answered.
Did Halladay, 33, motivate him for his own debut?
'I wasn't really thinking about it,' Lincecum, 26, said. 'Greatfor him, but obviously we're concerned with ourselves and how we'regoing to do.'
If Lincecum comes out with such focus tonight, obviously thatwill bode well for him and his teammates, most of whom are alsoplayoff neophytes.
Lincecum's only playoff cameo as a pro came in the 2006California League Northern Division Finals for the Single-A San JoseGiants, shortly after his senior season at the University ofWashington. He struck out 10 and allowed one run to victoriouslyopen that series.
His other Big-Time-Timmy-Jim playoff moments: pitching Renton'sLiberty High School to Washington's Class 3A championship as a sprysenior, and two summers later helping the Seattle Studs into theNational Baseball Congress World Series.
As if to stoke his psyche, a reporter reminded Lincecum that healready has pitched in front of a national audience at the 2009 All-Star Game.
'Going through that amped atmosphere, (having) a lot of fans anda lot of people there to see you do your thing, (it is the) samekind of scenario here. So it will help me a little bit,' Lincecumsaid. 'I'll try to keep myself in check and keep my heart ratedown.'
Reminded how great he encountered this past month's playoff chase(yes, reporters still adore him), Lincecum added: 'Just dealing withthat should help.'
Since when did this superhero need help? Since an 0-5 August.
He lost his fastball, his legs lacked conditioning, his armneeded long-toss workouts, his shoulder-length hair needed cuttingand his hat should strictly be his original, all-black model.
'I changed my routine in between starts, did a little moreconditioning,' said Lincecum, who went 5-1 with a 1.94 ERA inSeptember.
A picture of calm at Wednesday's dinner hour, he had 24 hours toamp up for his first sip of baseball's Octoberfest. It had betternot go as sour as his other first-time moments.
In his big-league debut on May 6, 2007, he yielded five runs,five hits and five walks before leaving with one out in the fifth.He had no decision in an eventual 8-5 loss at home to the Philliesbefore a lively crowd of 38,738.
Lincecum's first nod for a season opener came in 2009. Thehumbling result: He lasted only three innings and allowed three runsin a 10-6 defeat to the Milwaukee Brewers.
As for his first All-Star Game -- excluding the 2008 one hemissed with dehydration -- he stumbled out of the gate in that 2009Midsummer Classic in St. Louis. He yielded a leadoff single, hit abatter and allowed two runs (one earned) in his two innings of work.
Now comes an entirely different monster.
It may go great, like Halladay's. Or perhaps he will follow inthe Giants franchise lore of Christy Mathewson, whose playoff debutcame in the 1905 World Series and featured three shutout victoriesin six days.
Perhaps Lincecum will follow the snarky footsteps of CurtSchilling, who also made his playoff debut at age 26 en route to an11-2 career postseason record with three world championships.
Whoa, hold on there. Schilling is dead to Giants fans. An ESPNanalyst, he's picked the Braves to sweep this best-of-five series.
Contact Cam Inman at cinman@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow him atTwitter.com/CamInman.
