ANAHEIM, Calif._Tim Lincecum thinks his velocity has hurt him. Angels Manager Mike Scioscia thinks the 32-year-old right-hander has had another issue.
"His stuff," Scioscia said Friday afternoon, "is definitely good enough to pitch well in the major leagues. Right now, it's all command-sensitive."
Wearing long red socks against the Boston Red Sox on Friday night at Angel Stadium, Lincecum threw eight straight balls to begin the game. His command only improved marginally thereafter and, as would follow, the Angels suffered a 6-2 defeat.
Lincecum escaped that first inning via a hammer curveball to Xander Bogaerts and a double-play ball, and quickly retired the side in the second, before encountering more trouble in the third when he again walked Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia. He picked off Betts, but Pedroia scored when Bogaerts doubled, and Bogaerts scored when David Ortiz singled.
Lincecum loaded the bases without an out in the fourth, then started Betts with a 3-0 count. He again escaped, only one run added to his ledger on a sacrifice fly. In the sixth, he served up a solo home run to Jackie Bradley Jr., and exited the game, his earned-run average still 8.49 for the season.
Through three innings, Lincecum had thrown 22 strikes on 55 pitches. Baseball-Reference.com has tracked only five instances of a pitcher throwing fewer strikes on that many offerings. He finished his five-plus innings having thrown 43 strikes among his 90 pitches. No major leaguer had fired fewer strikes on as many pitches since 2009.
"I just keep battling myself out there," Lincecum said. "If I start battling the hitters, I'll do a better job."
"I think it was pretty obvious," Scioscia said afterward, when asked what was wrong with Lincecum. "He had a lot of problems with his deliver and release point. All in all, I think some of the same things plagued him."
Jhoulys Chacin liberated the rest of the Angels' bullpen by capably handling four innings. All the while, the Angels' offense could manage nothing against Boston starter Rick Porcello.
Only in the second inning did they score. Albert Pujols singled to center leading off, Daniel Nava followed with a single to the same direction, and Bradley over-ran it, turning it into a double. With two runners in scoring position and no out, Andrelton Simmons grounded to short. That brought in one run, and Carlos Perez laced a two-out single to score the last.
