HOUSTON – At this rate Tim Lincecum will surely win his third-consecutive Cy Young award, Bengie Molina will be the most prodigious 35-year-old catcher in the game, John Bowker will win a gold glove for his outfield defense, and Mark DeRosa will shatter Barry Bonds’ single-season home run record.Oh, the excitement of an Opening Day win.

Exaggeration aside, it was an awfully fine all-around performance for the 2010 vintage of the Giants, as they picked up a crisp 5-2 win over the Astros in Houston on Monday.

Lincecum (1-0) hushed concerns after a less than Tim-like Spring, holding the Astros to four singles over seven shut-out innings. He also fanned seven, walked none, and looked cool in his second Opening Day gig as a big leaguer – he lasted just three innings against Milwaukee on the season opener last April.

“It wasn’t the kind of hyped-upped-ness where you don’t know what’s going on,” Lincecum told reporters. “Obviously Opening Day can be overwhelming, more exciting than a usual game, but I tried not to let it overwhelm me.”

Newly acquired first baseman and clean-up hitter Aubrey Huff had an excellent seat to watch his diminutive teammate.

“Just watching him tonight, I got an idea what it’s all about,” said Huff, who went 1-for-4 with a single and scored a run in the Giants’ three-run second. “He knows how to step it up.”

The Giants’ ace also improved his lifetime record to 34-2 when getting at least three runs of support. As a team in 2009, San Francisco won nearly three-quarters of its games in which they scored three or more runs – a stat that perhaps was the impetus behind the signings of Huff and DeRosa.

Both moves paid dividends Monday, as DeRosa’s first hit as a Giant was a home run off Houston reliever Tim Byrdak in the eighth inning.
But it was a walk DeRosa drew in the second, following Huff’s single, that may have been the bigger at bat. Molina, the re-minted Opening Day catcher, followed DeRosa with one of his two singles scoring Huff. THen, Bowker drilled a single off the top of the Crawford Box in left, bringing home DeRosa, and sending Molina to third. Juan Uribe’s sac-fly to deep right-center scored the slow-footed Molina, making it 3-0 Giants.

“It was nice watching the bats do their thing today,” said Lincecum, who contributed at the plate too by getting down two sac-bunts on first pitches. “… I was definitely excited for this game more than anything. This is where it matters.”

Edgar Renteria added a two-out RBI double in the seventh, and DeRosa’s blast was all the offense the Giants would need.
Sergio Romo came on and pitched a scoreless eighth, but it will likely cost him in kangaroo court, as the eager right-hander bounded off the mound thinking his strike out of Michael Bourn ended the inning. It was only out number two. Romo gave up two hits, but escaped unscathed, other than the embarrassment he’s sure to face from teammates.

“I was just excited,” Romo said. “(I got) caught in the moment on my first Opening Day.”

Brandon Medders coughed up two runs in the ninth, but closer Brian Wilson came on to pick up the final two outs, sealing the win, and earning his first save of the season.

As is the case in nearly every one of Lincecum’s starts, the ‘Franchise’ was the story. But for Giants manager Bruce Bochy, the dominance his starter flaunted isn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“The last couple times in spring training, you could see Timmy getting where he wanted to be, and he took it into tonight’s game,” Bochy said. “He was his normal self.”

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™