#SFGiants Lineup and Pre-Game 8/3: Lincecum vs. Price

San Francisco (49-59) takes on Tampa Bay (64-45) today at 4:10pm PT in a battle of Cy Young winners.

Aug 2, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum (55) in the dugout against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. San Francisco Giants defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco Giants have not won 4 in a row since a 6 game streak from April 29th to May 5th.  On that date the Giants were 19-12 and had a 1 game lead over the Colorado Rockies for 1st place.  Since that day the Giants have gone 30-47 and fallen 10 games out of first.

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In 2013 San Francisco has gone 30-27 against teams with winning records, and 20-32 against teams with losing records.  Nothing much has made sense, and even more is difficult to explain this season – but hey, that’s baseball – lets see if San Francisco can muster up some more heartening stats to close out the final 2 months.

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2008 & 2009 NL Cy Young winner and author of a recent no-hitter Tim Lincecum (5-11 4.61 ERA) takes the hill tonight for San Francisco in his first start since the trade deadline, trying to extend a 3 game winning streak for the club.

From June 4th to July 13th Lincecum was seemingly back on track, with his worst performance a 4ER effort on June 26th.  Of course we remember the 148 pitch/13K no-hitter on July 13th, but Lincecum came back the next start to give up 8ER.  Next, Lincecum was stellar again, giving up 2ER in 7 innings with 10K’s in a 2-1 loss to the Cubs.

So which Lincecum will show up today, and will Tim find his consistency?

Jul 13, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price (14) high fives teammates int he dugout against the Houston Astros at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

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2012 Cy Young winner David Price (6-5 3.57 ERA) is on the hill for the Tampa Bay Rays.  Price has been excellent since coming back from injury in early July.  In his last two starts, both against Boston, Price went 16.1 innings giving up 2ER and only 7 hits – both victories.

Giants Lineup:

Torres CF,

Scutaro DH,

Sandoval 3B,

Posey C,

Pence RF,

Pill 1B,

Francoeur LF,

Arias 2B,

Crawford SS

Tampa Bay Lineup:

Jennings Cf

Zobrist 2B

Longoria 3B

Myers Rf

Loney 1B,

Escobar SS

Scott DH

Molina C

Johnson LF

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A day after going 3-4, a double short of the cycle, Brandon Belt sits in favor of Brett Pill, who has been hot at the plate himself.  Francoeur is in for Kieschnick, which despite Kieschnick’s bad game yesterday, has to have Giants fans scratching their heads as to why the veteran keeps getting playing time.  Francoeur has a great arm, but is all-but an automatic out at the plate thus far.