SAN FRANCISCO — Even when Tim Lincecum has a bad outing he still doesn’t give up many runs.
Lincecum pitched eight shutout innings, lowering his ERA to 2.18 and the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0 on Saturday night.
“You can have great rhythm through the game and still get lit up,” said Lincecum. “You go out there with confidence in yourself that today is going to be a good day but I didn’t know it was going be like that.”
Lincecum (12-3) struck out eight to increase his major-league leading total to 191. He leads the majors in strikeouts and innings pitched.
Brian Wilson earned his 27th save in 31 opportunities when he pitched the ninth to complete the seven-hit shutout. The Giants lead the majors with 15 shutouts.
“It was definitely a team performance today,” said Wilson. “Uribe coming up big with two RBIs. Tim did a marvelous job yet again. Whatever he seems to do doesn’t baffle us — he never ceases to amaze. I’m happy that he allowed me to come in and finish his game out.”
The Giants improved to 36-16 (.692) at home, which is the best home record in the majors.
“Tim did work hard tonight but against a very very good lineup, he pitched great,” San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said.
Joe Blanton suffered his first defeat in his last five outings as the NL East leading Phillies lost for only the 18th time on the road this season.
“I just go out and pitch,” said Blanton. “If we score 10 runs I go out and pitch, if we score no runs I go out and pitch.”
Blanton threw seven innings, gave up seven hits and two earned runs while striking out five.
“Blanton stays in there and throws strikes when he has to,” said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel. “We couldn’t score runs. Blanton was good, and he’s been good.”
Travis Ishikwara and Fred Lewis each had two hits for San Francisco.
In the seventh after Ishikwara reached on his second single of the night, Aaron Rowand was hit by a pitch and Ishikwara moved to third on a fly out. Uribe lofted his second sacrifice fly of the game to give the Giants took 2-0 lead.
Blanton (7-5) went seven innings giving up seven hits while striking out five. He had only allowed one hit until the fifth when Rowand doubled to deep center. He took third on Fred Lewis’ infield single which bounced off Blanton’s glove and scored on Uribe’s shallow sacrifice fly.
Through the first five innings, Lincecum wasn’t as sharp giving up seven hits but was able to work out of every jam he was in. In the third, fourth and fifth innings with men on base, the Giants’ ace was able to induce either ground outs or get a strikeout to get out of trouble.
In the top of the fifth, Lincecum loaded the bases and got Raul Ibanez to ground out to second base to end the inning and the threat.
Notes: Rowand was hit just above on the left elbow by a pitch from Blanton in the seventh inning. He was taken for X-rays after the game which proved to be negative. … The .741 winning percentage for the Phillies in July when they went 20-7 was their best winning percentage for the month since 1890 when they went 21-6 and had a .778 winning percentage. … They finished July with their third consecutive winning month, it was the first time since 2003 that the team had three straight winning months. … There were 650 dogs in attendance for the “Dog Days” celebration before the game. … Joining in the celebration, Lincecum brought his dog, a year-old French bulldog named Cy with him to the ballpark and he stayed in the clubhouse during the game.
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