Of course I was worried when Tim Lincecum was replaced with Joe Martinez to start the fourth. Lincecum’s production has seemed too good to be true from the very beginning of his Giants tenure, and any Giants fan would be lying if they told you they don’t hold onto the fear of losing Lincecum someplace in the back of their minds like a tax cheat fears that someday the IRS will come calling.

I don’t even remember where I heard Lincecum may have had a blister on his pitching hand. It could have been on KNBR, or a comment on McCovey Chronicles, or maybe it was some voice in the back of my head. A blister? No! Constant blister problems were the reason why Josh Beckett didn’t make 30 starts in a season until his fifth year!

Luckily, according to Henry Schulman’s blog Lincecum is totally healthy. No blisters, no hangnails, and his hair showed no signs of wind-damage or split-ends (maybe that’s why he has the same number as Orel “I still use Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, I swear” Hershiser). Bruce Bochy removed Lincecum after three high-stress innings (which weren’t helped a bit by Dana Demuth’s miniscule strike zone) to keep Lincecum fresh, not because he’s headed to the disabled list.

Phew!!!

More Giants-related links

–You know who isn’t healthy? Brandon Webb! The Diamondbacks aren’t paging Dr. James Andrews yet, but shoulder stiffness is never a good sign, especially for a guy who’s pitched over 1,300 innings over his first six seasons. (ESPN)

–The San Jose Giants might be the most star-studded minor league team in baseball, which means two words: road trip! (El Lefty Malo)

–Lincecum had a tough time controlling his fastball yesterday, with or without Demuth’s stingy strike zone. Want proof in the form of charts and graphs? Here ya go… (Bay City Ball)

–Does anybody complain about cable stations and providers as much as Bruce Jenkins? He also might be the only person in the world to have both DirecTV and Comcast in his house. (Three Dot Blog)

–Tough to imagine anything could surpass the utter lameness of last year’s “Gamer” campaign, but this Giants poster was either worded incorrectly or someone put Icy Hot in Matt Cain’s cup. (Big League Stew)

Related posts:

1. Quietly, Tim Lincecum is better than ever
2. Can Tim Lincecum reverse All-Star jinx?
3. Poor Tim Lincecum
4. Tim Lincecum, Pert Plus on line one…
5. No place like (Tim Lincecum’s) home