Lincoln pitched 6 innings and gave up six hits and no runs. He walked 1 and struck out 4 while lowering his season ERA to 3.42. He threw only 78 pitches and threw 55 of them for strikes. His strikeout victims were Jon Jay, Matt Holliday, Skip Schumaker, and Chris Carpenter.
The fastball wasn't overpowering, and it never will be from Lincoln. He threw 46 4-seam fastballs with an average velocity of 92.2 miles per hour. He mixed a couple 2-seamers that averaged 91.7 miles per hour. He threw 16 change ups, 12 curveballs, and a slider. He labored a little bit in the 6th inning, throwing 24 pitches, which is one of the reasons he didn't come out for the 7th. Here are his pitch locations for the start:
For the year, Lincoln has now thrown 23.3 innings and gave up 21 hits and surrendered 9 earned runs. In his starts, he's thrown 18 innings giving up 12 hits and 4 runs, that's an ERA of 2.00 as a starter.
I still don't know if Brad Lincoln will ever be a fixture in the rotation for the Pirates, but what we have seen at the big league level so far has been pretty encouraging. He's got hit around a little bit coming out of the bullpen, but has been very strong in his starts. His minor league numbers are discouraging as well. In 19 AAA starts he had a 4.19 ERA. That said, his BB/9 was 1.7 and his K/9 was 7.6, both of which are very good numbers to see.
It's been an up and down season for Lincoln, but starts like today are exciting for Pirates fans. We'll see what the Pirates do this offseason, if they try to bolster their rotation through free agency or trades, but if not, Lincoln has a very good chance to make the Opening Day rotation and could help the team in a back of the rotation role. It will be interesting to see Lincoln pitch the rest of this season, and we'll be keeping a close eye on him here at The "Mc" Effect.