Lincecum Throws Complete Game Shutout, Strikes Out 14

With three days in between the last pitch of the division title clinching game on Sunday and the first pitch of Game One of the NLDS, everything was under the microscope. The 25-man roster, Barry Zito, Aaron Rowand, The strength of Braves pitching, the inconsistency of the Giants offense, Bruce Bochy's beard, Buster Posey's lack thereof, Bobby Cox's 401K, etc. Anything to fill in the 72 hours of unbaseball.

Of course, for good measure, baseball minds threw in Lincecum's so-called "up and down" season into the discussion ring. To be sure, he had a horrible August this year (7.28 ERA). But I can't call Lincecum's 2010 up and down, mostly due to the fact that August of 2010 was possibly the only down month of his entire life. It was a worry, but after September I think everyone was confident he had put it behind him. This didn't stop the announcers from using the phrase "roller-coaster season" during his warm ups last night.

This roller coaster season stuff is just part of the rap against Lincecum. Along with him being too skinny and everyone thinking his arm is going to fall off because of his quirky delivery. The rap is easy because it's obvious. We can point out the obvious, or things that happened in the past, but it has nothing to do with what will happen next. The great ones can turn in performances that can disprove what we thought would happen, and cause us to highlight paragraphs of analysis on our screens and hit the delete key, because we have to rethink what we thought. He's not too small. His arm is going to be fine. The roller coaster is smoother than we thought and it only has one dip.

I have to admit that before the game I was thinking about the 2009 All Star game. Lincecum got the start and wilted a little bit in the spotlight during that game. For me it was cause for concern that the Freak could freak out on a big stage. After Infante's leadoff double, I wondered if it was happening again. Then, in the second inning, when he started striking everyone out, I knew he was not only going to win the game, but possibly close the book on the rap against him.

Tim Lincecum has been a star for awhile, but I feel like we're watching the emergence of a superstar. He's getting to that point where when there is doubt, he can just throw it aside effortlessly. Listen to him during the post game press conference. It's boring:

Reporter: "How did you do this incredible thing?" Tim: " Well, things were obviously working."

Reporter: "Is this your best game ever?" Tim: "It's hard to rank them, I just try to give my team a chance to win."

He's not amazed at himself. It's just a matter of fact. And when the amazing becomes a matter of fact, that's when superstars are made.