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Lincecum settles down, enjoys Minors start
- Updated: June 3, 2016
TACOMA, Wash. — The Angels didn’t need Tim Lincecum to be a two-time Cy Young Award winner Thursday night.
All they needed was improvement from the veteran right-hander who’s making a comeback to the Major Leagues after hip surgery last September. Lincecum is in the middle of a progression back to The Show after signing with the Angels following an Arizona showcase in mid-May, and on Thursday, that journey took him to a very familiar place: his native Pacific Northwest.
Lincecum, who signed for $2.5 million and has the chance to almost double that with incentives, took another step at Cheney Stadium, where he pitched five innings for the Salt Lake Bees, the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate, against the Mariners’ Triple-A team, the Tacoma Rainiers, in front of family and friends among a weeknight crowd of 5,643.
Lincecum, whose famous pitching delivery can be described as an unconventional hodgepodge of moving parts, looked less extreme in his windup than he had been in the past, and he had moments of inconsistency in his first game back at this level since the surgery.
But he got better as the innings went along, and if the Angels can get Thursday’s game to be a microcosm of the rest of the season with Lincecum in their starting rotation, they might have a lot to smile about.
In the end, Lincecum certainly did.
“It feels great, to be honest with you, just to be out there competing at this level,” said Lincecum, who pitched five innings in Salt Lake’s 6-1 loss to Tacoma, giving up three runs on three hits while striking out five, walking three, hitting a batter and committing a balk. He topped out at 91 mph on his fastball early but mostly sat at 89 while also throwing a changeup that sat at 83 mph and a 75 mph curveball.
“Just kind of getting ready for the next one. But just to be around the guys, the …
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