Poor Tim Lincecum.
It had to have been killing him to miss the entire All Star Game experience with the flu, not just because the game went 15 innings and the National League could have used him, but that everybody has been saying/writing “flu-like symptoms” while winking like when Tom Cruise “made a baby” with Katie Holmes.
I’ll admit I did the same thing, even making a Josh Hamilton joke about Timmy yesterday after hearing the breaking news on KNBR. It looked pretty bad that he got so sick he had to be rushed to the hospital, and his personality and physical size lead one to think Lincecum may very well be a lightweight in more ways than one.
But according to Mychael Urban, Justin Duchscherer (or Duck-sure, as Joe Buck pronounced it during the pre-game lineups) had some sort of viral infection as well, and almost didn’t pitch in the game. Perhaps Duke gave up one run in a shaky inning of work because he was under the weather.
Brian Wilson didn’t complain of any illness, and fared quite well in retiring the two batters he faced, so maybe Bay Area pitchers aren’t totally cursed this season (just Barry Zito). In fact, if Clint Hurdle didn’t pull a Bochy and yank Wilson after two outs to get the lefty/lefty matchup between Billy Wagner and Grady Sizemore (which led to a single by Sizemore and a ground-rule double by Evan Longoria to tie the game at 3-3), the National League may have won their first All Star Game in 12 years.
Wilson also stood up for Lincecum, saying a few Giants suffered from the flu during the weekend series in Chicago. One look at the linebacker-esque Wilson leads one to wonder if maybe he just has a higher tolerance for Red Bull and vodka than little Timmy, but until further notice this space is going to believe the company line: Lincecum had flu symptoms, not “flu-like symptoms.”
