San Francisco Giants: Tim Lincecum (10-2, 2.33 ERA)
Pittsburgh Pirates: Paul Maholm (6-4, 4.60 ERA)
Maybe i'm way off here but does anyone else think this is a perfect spot for fading Tim Lincecum? Sure he has been one of the elite pitchers in baseball this year but he started the all-star game just 3 nights ago, and in my experience starting pitchers hate having their routines messed with too much.
The Pirates are no way as bad of a team as their win/loss record suggests, pythag has them at being 43-45 based on their runs scored/conceded, compared to the actual record of 38-50. The Buccos come back home after a 9 game road stretch, and they play their best ball at home. Their offensive numbers and bullpen stats are both better in home games, and Paul Maholm has a 2.96 home ERA compared to a 4.60 mark overall.
The Giants are a light hitting team who are sticking around based on pitching, sure they've had a couple of big numbers on the scoreboard lately but those games came at home against poor teams in Houston and San Diego. The Giants hit just .250 on the road and average 3.6 runs a game, which is pretty poor. They also struggle against left handed pitching, tallying just 13 runs in their last runs 5 games against left handed starters.
Tim Lincecum has only faced the Pirates once before giving up 6 runs in 6 innings, but that was back in 2007 so cant really take too much notice of that. I have very little doubt that the Giants are favourites, I Just believe that the Pirates are in the perfect spot to win this game - with the motivation of wanting to get a good home performance in returning home after a torrid road trip, and the fact that Tim Lincecum has had his schedule altered by his all-star appearence.
Pittsburgh ML (+141) and especially RL (-118) are both realistic plays here for me.
Thoughts? Opinions? STFU replies?
EDIT: Just noticed ive written the title of the thread wrong....FAIL