Lincecum stops Beavers in PCL debut
Lincecum (1-0), San Francisco's first-round pick in last year's First-Year Player Draft, made a successful Triple-A debut. With Portland (1-2) having trouble figuring out his twisting, snapping delivery, the 22-year-old right-hander right-hander struck out eight batters and allowed only two hits, both singles, over five innings.
"I really haven't seen anything quite like it," Grizzlies manager Dan Rohn said of his pitcher's delivery. "The only guy I can compare to Tim Lincecum is Tim Lincecum. He's one agile and flexible young man."
The 6-foot, 170-pound right-hander was limited to 83 pitches -- 50 strikes -- and got all but one of his strikeout victims swinging. Rohn said that all three of his pitches -- fastball, curve and changeup -- were working and that Lincecum is simply biding his time until he is called up to the Major Leagues.
"There's not really much tinkering we can do. He's in the same situation as Felix [Hernandez] was," said Rohn, who managed the Mariners' star righty at Triple-A Tacoma. "He's here to get his innings in and when [the Giants] think he's ready, he'll be ready."
Patrick Misch came on in the sixth and was just as sharp as Lincecum, giving up one hit over three innings while striking out three. Dan Giese closed out the game with a perfect ninth.
Fresno (2-1) broke a scoreless tie in the fourth when Nate Schierholtz belted a two-out solo homer to right field. The Grizzlies added two runs in the fifth on Fred Lewis' blast and got three more in the sixth, highlighted by Tomas De La Rosa' one-out double.
Schierholtz was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored, while Lewis went 1-for-2 with two walks, two RBIs and a run scored.
No Beaver reached base more than once and only leadoff man Adam Shabala made it as far as third base, aided by an error and a passed ball.
Jared Wells (0-1) took the loss after allowing three runs on four hits and two walks while striking out six in five innings.
Michael Echan is a contributor to MLB.com.