Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants named National League Player of the Week
San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Tim Lincecum, who threw his second career no-hitter on Wednesday, June 25th, has been named National League Player of the Week for the period ending June 29th. The announcement was made earlier today on MLB Network.
Lincecum did not allow a hit over 9.0 innings of work, throwing 113 pitches (73 strikes) en route to a 4-0 victory over the San Diego Padres in front of 41,500 at San Francisco's AT&T Park. He fanned six and allowed just a single baserunner on a second-inning walk. The no-hitter was the third of the 2014 season, all of which occurred in a 32-day span (Josh Beckett on May 25th and Clayton Kershaw on June 18th). According to Elias, only once in the last 20 years have three-or-more no-hitters been thrown over such a short span; in 2012, Johan Santana (June 1st), a combination of six different Mariners pitchers (June 8th) and Matt Cain (perfect game, June 13th) all completed no-hitters within a period of two weeks. Lincecum, whose first career no-hitter also came against the Padres (July 13, 2013), joined Cleveland's Addie Joss, who no-hit the White Sox in both 1908 and 1910, as the only Major League hurlers to throw two career no-hitters against the same team (Elias Sports Bureau). "The Freak" also joined Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson as the only pitchers in Giants franchise history to throw two career no-hitters. Mathewson threw both of his no-hitters over a century ago (1901 and 1905). Lincecum's performance was the 16th no-hitter in Giants' history and the eighth in the San Francisco era (since 1958). According to Elias, Lincecum, a two-time N.L. Cy Young Award-winner (2008-09), became the third pitcher in Major League history to have multiple Cy Young Awards and multiple no-hitters, joining Randy Johnson and Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. In addition,
Lincecum recorded two hits and two runs in the victory, becoming the seventh pitcher with at least two hits and two runs scored in a game in which he threw a no-hitter (Elias). Lincecum improved to 6-5 on the season with the performance and lowered his ERA from 4.90 to 4.42 (45 ER/91.2 IP). This is his third career weekly award, having won previously for the weeks of August 2, 2009 and July 14, 2013.
Other noteworthy performances last week included Matt Adams (.360, 9 H, 3 HR, 8 RBI, .760 SLG) of the St. Louis Cardinals; Washington's Adam LaRoche (.333, 3 HR, 7 RBI, .667 SLG) and Gio Gonzalez (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 12 SO, 13.0 IP); Philadelphia's Ben Revere (.394, 13 H, 2 3B, 3 SB, .429 OBP); and Dee Gordon (.481, 13 H, SB, .500 OBP) and last week's winner Kershaw (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 21 SO, 15.0 IP) of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In recognition of his National League Player of the Week Award, Tim Lincecum will be awarded a watch, courtesy of Game Time, the leader in licensed sports watches, available at MLB.com.