Lincecum chasing triple history
Photos & Article by Andy Lopusnak of Bay Area Sports Drive
August 12, 2009
Click here for a photo gallery from the Dodgers-Giants game.

San Francisco Giants star pitcher Tim Lincecum is well on his way to a historical trifecta this season – a back-to-back Cy Young Award, leading the majors in strikeouts for consecutive seasons and 300 strikeouts. He surpassed the 200-strikeout mark against the Dodgers in the team’s 4-2 extra innings win Wednesday afternoon (Aug. 12) when Los Angeles all-star outfielder Manny Ramirez whiffed on third strike.

Lincecum pitched 8 2/3 innings, struck out seven, allowed four hits and two earned runs, but failed to get the decision for the fifth straight time he allowed less than two runs and got little run support. Additionally, he took sat down the lead-off hitter in eight of nine innings and had five 1-2-3 innings.  

On the season, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner is 12-3 and leads the MLB with 205 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.19. At his current pace, he'd be nine short of the the elusive 300-strikeout club. He's projected to start ten more times and is averaging 8.6 strikeouts per appearance (he needs 9.5). However, with the Giants in the hunt for the NL's wildcard, San Francisco manager Brett Bouchy could opt to change the rotation to get Lincecum some more starts and thus help the team in the playoff push and potentially reach 300.

Lincecum led the majors in strikeouts last season and is significantly ahead of his competition to repeat that honor in 2009. If he does the season as the 2009 strikeout king, Lincecum would be the 19th pitcher to lead the majors in strikeouts in back-to-back seasons and first since Johann Santana did so from 2005-06.  

There have been 14 different pitchers to win the Cy Young Award multiple times. Just six of the 14 pitchers have won it in back-to-back years, including Lincecum’s teammate Randy Johnson, who won the award four straight seasons (1999-2002) and is the last player to win in back-to-back seasons.

Since the MLB Modern Era began (1901 when the American League was founded), just 15 pitchers have reached the 300-strikeout plateu and only five have down it since 1980. The last to do so were Curt Schilling (316 in 2002) and Johnson (334 in 2002) when both played for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In fact, Johnson has five of the top twelve Modern Era strikeout seasons and is the second all-time overall leader in the category.

In MLB history, only twice have pitchers have led the majors in strikeouts, reached at least 300 strikeouts once and won back-to-back Cy Young Awards: Johnson (1999-2003) and Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax (1965-66). That’s a pretty elite group and Lincecum is chasing this bit of triple history one pitch at a time.

Check back with Bay Area Sports Drive frequently for more news on the Giants and Lincecum's run for history.

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