Stat Line of the Day: May 11th

Tim Lincecum (SF) & Ian Kennedy (ARI): 1-0 San Francisco

Kennedy (L) and Lincecum dueled in 
the desert, though neither got the win

Most eyes were on Roy Halladay and Josh Johnson to provide the pitcher's duel of the night--and while the two each had very solid starts in South Florida, they didn't throw the ball as well as Lincecum and Kennedy. The two NL West pitchers combined to throw 16 scoreless innings, giving up just four hits each. Kennedy walked three and struck out eight, throwing 76 of his 116 pitches for strikes (65.5%). Lincecum, meanwhile, walked two and struck out nine while throwing 76 of his 113 pitches for strikes (67.3%). Suffice it to say, other than Lincecum's slightly higher gamescore--81 to 79--there wasn't much separating these two pitchers other than possibly the performance of their bullpens. While Lincecum had Brian Wilson pitch a scoreless ninth for the Giants, David Hernandez didn't do such a great job for the Diamondbacks. Hernandez gave up a leadoff walk to Buster Posey, and two batters later Cody Ross singled in pinch runner Darren Ford for the win. The spotlight, however, was still on the two starters. Lincecum became just the third starter this year (Zambrano, Billingsley) to throw a gamescore of 80+ and not get a decision, which really only happens in these type of scenarios. We haven't yet seen a pitcher throw an 80+ gamescore and have his team blow a lead of more than one run, if they had a lead at all, but I would imagine watching your team implode for five or six runs in the ninth inning would be much more painful. Neither pitcher tonight really deserved a loss, but that's the way the game happens sometimes. Either way, Tim Lincecum and Ian Kennedy combined for our Stat Line of the Day, and it wasn't even close.