Lincecum pitching for more than a Game 4 victory

Allow me to quote the great Marty Lurie in the form of a screenshot from Twitter:

Indeed Marty, indeed.

I feel like we've begun to see prolonged glimpses of the "Old Lincecum" and "Good Lincecum"-- the guy that carried us to victory so many times in so many pressure-packed situations. We knew that guy was inside #55 somewhere, we just hadn't seen him in 2012 until now.

If I were to wager a guess right now, I'd say there's a 60-40 chance that Timmy will depart after 2013. With the type of season he had with the Giants in '12, there's not a lot of confidence by the Giants' front office for the future. Would you commit big money to him? Those who think with their hearts say, 'YES! YES! A MILLION TIMES YES!' and those who look at declining stats and a literally shrinking body say, 'The Giants dodged a bullet when Lincecum refused to sign long term'.

Regardless of which school of thought you come from, you're still a Giants fan, and you still get a thrill from watching The Freak wildly strike out a flailing batter with a wicked fork/changeup thing or diving curve. We fell in love with this guy for a reason and being able to see vintage Freak in the playoffs gets everybody's blood pumping.

Game 4 at Busch will be a matchup of two guys trying to regain their former dominance. On one side is Adam Wainwright (who many Cardinals fans to this day vehemently insist should've won the Cy Young the second time Timmy won it). On the other side, is Lincecum.

Their stories are different, but they're both after the same goal.

"Waino", as he's affectionately known in St. Louis, is coming off Tommy John surgery, and has been up and down. At times, he's struggled to locate the ball, and his kill pitch-- his wickedly hooking 12-6 curveball-- has been absent at times.

As seen in Game 5 of the NLDS versus the Nats  Gnats, Wainwright was lit into pretty badly. It shows that a year after TJ, he's still not completely back. But hey, at least he's out there, putting his ass on the line for his team, an opportunity Stephen Strasburg was never afforded by the pathetic organization they call the Washington Nationals.

But I digress.

With the weight of a city and a franchise on his shoulders, and the rabid, towel-waving sea of red that awaits him, Lincecum needs to be THE MAN.

The consequences are dire. Failure could lead to a 3-1 deficit with one left to play in STL-- a nightmare scenare.

With success, the Giants even up the NLCS (in the short term). They regain a trustworthy ace, and new life is injected into every aspect of the franchise-- from the dugout, to the hundreds of thousands yelling at their TVs and drinking rally cocktails.

In the long term, Lincecum shows the world that he can once again be a cyclonic, dynamic force in Major League Baseball. He once again commands respect, confidence, and dollars.

I've learned from this team that it ain't over until it's frickin over. With a badass performance against all odds, Timmy can breathe new life into this team and into his uncertain career.

Sounds like a plan.