Tim Lincecum made his second, and likely last, minor league start today for the Salt Lake Bees. He was pitching in hitter-friendly Reno ballpark - Greater Nevada Field.
The first inning started out a little bit rocky, but not completely because of Lincecum. The leadoff hitter reached basethanks to a fielding error by shortstop Ryan Jackson. Lincecum then got the next hitter to fly out, but followed that up with back to back walks to load up the bases. Batter #5 hit a line drive to left field, scoring the first two runs of the game. Batter #6 was also a base hit, driving in the third run. The firth run scored when catcher Erik Kratz made a throwing error trying to catch Zach Borenstein stealing. Lincecum managed to get the next two batters to fly out to center field and was out of the inning without any more damage.
The Freak bounced back fast and struck out the side 1-2-3 in the second inning. Lincecum only faced 4 batters in the 3rd, striking out one, but he did have an errant pickoff attempt. Another 1-2-3 inning and another strikeout in the 4th inning and Lincecum was rolling. The 5th inning was also 1-2-3 and he was done for the day.
Lincecum faced 8 batters that first inning (not entirely his fault), but was nearly perfect and faced just one over the minimum his last 4 innings sd he retired the last 8 in a row. He ended the day with 95 pitches thrown, 59 for strikes. He only gave up 2 ER, 2 walks, and 3 hits along with 6ks.