Giants' Lincecum no-hits Padres

(Reuters) - San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum threw a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in a masterful 4-0 home victory on Wednesday. Lincecum struck out six and yielded one walk in dominating the Padres, the team he also hurled his first career no-hitter against last July. The slightly built right-hander, nicknamed "The Freak," breezed through the Padres in the ninth, retiring pinch-hitters Chris Denorfia and Yasmani Grandal before getting Will Venable to ground out to second baseman Joe Panik to end the game. Teammates rushed to the mound to celebrate the no-hitter, mobbing Lincecum in delight. The celebration also interrupted his postgame interview on the field, as just before he was about to speak a teammate dumped a blue bucket of Gatorade on him, which was quickly followed by another dumping that sent the drenched pitcher heading to the clubhouse. Lincecum, who also went 2-for-3 in the game and scored two runs, threw 113 pitches, 73 for strikes before a crowd of more than 41,000 in the afternoon game at AT&T Park as he improved to 6-5 for the season. The two-time Cy Young Award winner joined Baseball Hall of Famer Addie Joss as the only pitcher to no-hit the same team twice, according to Elias Sports. Lincecum's gem was the third no-hitter of the Major League Baseball season following no-hitters tossed by Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers Josh Beckett and Clayton Kershaw. (Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue)