#SFGiants 8/8 Pre-Game: Lincecum Day, Scutaro Leads Off

In the first attempt at least, the Hunter Pence experiment at leadoff didn’t quite work out and Marco Scutaro will be back at that spot this afternoon.

The Giants are looking for any kind of spark at this point, so last night Bruce Bochy tweaked the lineup.  Pence hit leadoff, Brandon Belt hit 3rd, and  Jeff Francoeur played CF – to give Gregor Blanco a “mental break” for the day.

Aug 7, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner (40) hands the ball to manager Bruce Bochy (15) after being taken out of the game during the eighth inning at AT

San Francisco still only managed 3 hits (including an 0-4 from Pence atop the lineup) against a starting pitcher just coming off of the DL that hadn’t pitched since June 3rd, that had an ERA over 5, and was on a 75 pitch limit.

Madison Bumgarner was fantastic again through 7, and could have made it out of the 8th almost unscathed, but as has happened so many times this season — the wheels fell off.  Errors, mental mistakes, hits, you name it; the Giants fell apart late and ultimately looked disinterested in the 6-1 loss.

Bumgarner ended up being charged with 4 ER, breaking a streak of 9 consecutive starts going 7 innings giving up 2 ER or less — the longest such streak since 1996.

Frustration boiled over after the game when Bumgarner was asked if he thought the team had mentally checked out: “Sometimes, yeah, I do,” Bumgarner said. “It seems like it some days we come in here, and some days it doesn’t.”

Bruce Bochy showed his frustration by only taking 3 post-game questions from the media, “We played like where we’re at right now,” manager Bruce Bochy said, “Go into the clubhouse and ask those guys what happened.”

In today’s version of the lineup — Scutaro is back leading off, Brandon Belt moves to cleanup for the day, Blanco is back in CF, and Buster Posey is getting the day off.

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Tim Lincecum (5-11, 4.43 ERA) takes on rookie Donovan Hand (0-3, 3.60) in the rubber match of this four game series with the Brewers.

Jul 28, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Tim Lincecum (55) pitches the ball against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at AT

Lincecum has been solid — save an 8 ER performance on July 22nd — since May 29th, giving up 4 ER only once in 8 other starts.

Hand is getting his 7th start on the season and is coming off a 3-0 loss to Washington in which he gave up a pair of HR’s.  He has been used as a reliever 12 times this year.

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Roster Move: Guillermo Quiroz has been designated for assignment and Hector Sanchez has been recalled from Fresno.

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Lineups:

San Francisco Giants

Scutaro 2B

Crawford SS

Sandoval 3B

Belt 1B

Pence RF

Kieschnick LF

Sanchez C

Blanco CF

Lincecum RHP

Milwaukee Brewers

Aoki RF

Segura SS

Lucroy C

Gomez CF

Gindl LF

Bianchi 2B

Francisco 1B

Betancourt 3B

Hand P

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And a fun fact from Steve Kroner-