LOS ANGELES — Tim Lincecum scattered four hits over six innings and had three hits and three RBIs, leading the San Francisco Giants to a 9-0 victory over the sloppy Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.
Lincecum (3-0) struck out seven and walked two. The two-time Cy Young winner has allowed just two runs over 20 innings in his first three starts. But it was at the plate where he made the biggest impression.
Lincecum got all three of his RBIs against knuckleballer Charlie Haeger before the Dodgers got their first hit against the All-Star right-hander as the Giants built an early 5-0 lead. He had only three RBIs last season in 66 at-bats.
He drove in batterymate Bengie Molina with San Francisco’s first run, pushing a bunt single past the mound in the second inning. In the third, Lincecum came up with the bases loaded and stroked a two-run single to right-center.
Dodgers manager Joe Torre fielded a lineup that was missing catcher Russell Martin (0 for 13 against Lincecum), third baseman Casey Blake (0 for 9) and shortstop Rafael Furcal (3 for 14). As a result, they were quite vulnerable on defense — and it showed.
Errors by reserve shortstop Jamey Carroll and backup catcher A.J. Ellis — who also committed a passed ball in the inning that enabled Nate Schierholtz to score — helped the Giants score four runs in the third.
The Giants increased the margin to 7-0 in the fourth with Molina’s bloop RBI single and Juan Uribe’s sacrifice fly. They completed the scoring in the seventh with an RBI double by Eugenio Velez and a sacrifice fly from Edgar Renteria.
Haeger (0-1) retired only eight of the 22 batters be faced, throwing 94 pitches in three-plus innings. The right-hander was charged with seven runs — five earned — seven hits and five walks, and also hit a batter.
Giants center fielder and leadoff hitter Aaron Rowand was out of the lineup, one day after a fastball from Dodgers right-hander Vicente Padilla left him with two small broken bones in his left cheekbone and a mild concussion. Left fielder Mark DeRosa was removed from the game in the fourth for a pinch-hitter after straining his right hamstring.
Garret Anderson started in left field for Manny Ramirez, who left Friday’s series opener with tightness in his right calf — but had a scheduled day off, anyway.
NOTES: The one constant in the longtime rivalry between the Dodgers and Giants has been Vin Scully, who on Sunday will mark the 60th anniversary of his first day in the Dodgers’ broadcast booth with Red Barber and Connie Desmond. “I feel only overwhelming gratitude,” Scully told the Associated Press. “You feel blessed that you’ve lived that long, that you’ve been allowed to do what you love to do for that long, and that my health has held up all those years. It’s humbling to think that you’ve been that fortunate and that God has blessed you with that time. That first team, the so-called ‘Boys of Summer,’ that was my graduating class. I mean, look at the team then. I had Don Newcombe, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Billy Cox, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Carl Furillo and Carl Erskine. That was such an amazing collection of players, so I guess that was the team that made the most impression on me.”
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