Giants take NLDS Game 1

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO

The sellout crowd that had been waiting seven years for another playoff game roared when Tim Lincecum jogged back out to the mound to start the ninth inning. The way the Freak dominated in his postseason debut, there was no way manager Bruce Bochy would take the ball away.

Lincecum pitched a two-hitter and struck out 14 in a dazzling performance, and the San Francisco Giants scored their only run after a questionable umpiring call to beat the Atlanta Braves 1-0 in Game 1 of their NL division series Thursday night.

“That’s one of the best efforts I’ve ever seen,” Bochy said. “What a great job that kid did. He’s tough. If he’s on and he has all his pitches working, he’s going to be tough.”

That he was.

The two-time NL Cy Young winner pitched a gem, a day after Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay threw only the second no-hitter in postseason history in his first playoff game. Lincecum outdueled playoff veteran Derek Lowe and caught a break, too.

Cody Ross singled in the only run Lincecum needed in the fourth after Buster Posey was called safe by umpire Paul Emmel on a steal of second.

“I guess it’s a good thing we don’t have instant replay right now,” Posey said. “It was a beautiful slide, wasn’t it?”

It was the first career steal for Posey, even though he appeared to be tagged out by Brooks Conrad on the play — retiring Braves manager Bobby Cox, the all-time leader in ejections, did not argue.

“I haven’t seen it,” Cox said. “Some of the guys came down after that inning and said he was out by six, eight inches. From the dugout you can’t see anything.”

Said Emmel: “I saw him safe. That’s what I called.”

Lincecum struck out Derrek Lee for the third time to end the 119-pitch masterpiece in 2 hours, 26 minutes. He became just the 12th pitcher with 14 or more strikeouts in a postseason game.

“As far as shutouts go, I think that was up there with my better ones,” said Lincecum, who pitched on seven days’ rest. “I was pretty anxious to get out there a couple days ago. You just have to deal with those extra days.”

While it used to be slugger Barry Bonds as the face of the franchise, now it’s the skinny, shaggy-haired Lincecum.