San Francisco, CA (Sports Network) - Pat Burrell hit a three-run homer to back seven effective innings from Tim Lincecum, as the San Francisco Giants edged the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-1, in the middle contest of a three-game series.
Giants, Tim Lincecum Look To Reduce Magic Number Versus Diamondbacks
The West will be decided this weekend, when the Giants host the Padres for three games. That series opens Friday.
The Giants took the victory Wednesday thanks to Lincecum (16-10), who allowed just one run -- a leadoff homer by Stephen Drew -- during his start. He gave up six hits and walked four, but struck out 11. Brian Wilson escaped trouble in the ninth for his 47th save.
Ian Kennedy (9-10) pitched five innings in the start for Arizona, and gave up Burrell's homer to take the loss.
Drew opened the game by pulling Lincecum's second pitch, an elevated curveball, over the right field wall. The Giants starter got in more trouble later in the inning by issuing one-out walks to Kelly Johnson and Chris Young, but retired the following two batters.
Arizona had runners on the corners with two away in the second, but Lincecum got an inning-ending groundout from Tony Abreu.
Burrell then put the Giants in front in the fourth. Aubrey Huff began the inning with a single before Buster Posey walked to bring up Burrell, who got around on a fastball and slugged it into the left field seats for a 3-1 lead.
Lincecum had settled into a groove at that point, and while he wasn't perfect, he didn't encounter any big jams over his final five innings. Javier Lopez threw a scoreless eighth before Wilson took over in the ninth.
Pinch-hitter Augie Ojeda opened the final inning with a double, then moved to third on Drew's groundout. Wilson walked pinch-hitter Mark Reynolds after two close pitches were called balls, but fanned Johnson for the second out. Young then grounded a ball to shortstop, where Juan Uribe fielded it and flipped to second for the game's final out.
Wilson is one save shy of equaling Rod Beck for the single-season franchise record. Beck had 48 saves in 1993...Lincecum won five of his six September starts...Lincecum leads the National League with 231 strikeouts...Burrell's homer was his 20th of the season. He had not reached the 20-HR mark since 2008, when he hit 33 for the Phillies...The Giants lead the season series, 12-5...Gerardo Parra had two hits for Arizona.
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