SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Giants Manager Bruce Bochy had every motivation to toss the pitch counter in a trash can and keep Tim Lincecum on the mound in a 4-1 victory last night.

There were struggling setup men Tyler Walker and Jack Taschner, who were booed as soon as they snapped off their jackets. There was the looming presence of Matt Holliday, the Colorado Rockies' best hitter. And there was the Cy Young Award race, which tightened up considerably after Arizona front-runner Brandon Webb got pounded on Tuesday night.

There were more than 30,000 other reasons, too. Bochy knew that once he took one step from the dugout, he would be booed as if he wore a Dodgers jersey.

Bochy stuck with Lincecum as long as he could in a one-run game, putting a career-high 132 pitches on the right-hander's rubber arm — tied for the most a major leaguer has thrown in a game this season — before finally absorbing the crowd disapproval.

Taschner gave up a hit before closer Brian Wilson escaped the eighth inning. After the Giants tacked on two runs in the eighth, Wilson pitched the ninth to record his 36th save and protect Lincecum's victory.

Bengie Molina and Pablo Sandoval hit home runs on consecutive pitches to erase a one-run deficit in the seventh inning. It was just the second time the Giants hit back-to-back homers this season; Molina and Aaron Rowand combined on the other occasion, May 23 at Florida.

Suddenly, the game became Lincecum's to win. He had thrown 118 pitches through seven innings but received a huge ovation when he sprinted out and scooped up the ball in the top of the eighth.

Even after a one-out walk and with Lincecum's pitch count soaring, Bochy wanted him to face Holliday and he threw a 93 mph fastball to induce a flyout to right field.

Lincecum (15-3) struck out 10 in 7 1/3 innings to increase his major-league-leading total to 210. He also tied Cleveland's Cliff Lee for the major league lead with a 2.43 ERA.

That's markedly better than Webb, who has 19 victories but saw his ERA jump to 2.96 after a rough start against the San Diego Padres.

Bochy is less gun-shy about pushing Lincecum, whose 132 pitches were a career high and tied Florida's Ricky Nolasco for the most thrown by a pitcher in a major league game this season.

No Giants pitcher had thrown as many since Jason Schmidt (132) in May 2006. Also, Lincecum has leapfrogged teammate Matt Cain and leads the National League with 3,008 pitches thrown.

The Giants couldn't rouse much offense against Livan Hernandez, even though the wide-bodied former staff ace had been knocked around all season; he had a 14.33 ERA in four starts since the Rockies plucked him off waivers from the Minnesota Twins.

Hernandez got plenty of quick outs while holding the Giants to two singles over the first five innings.

But as Giants fans can attest, Hernandez often loses his stuff quickly. It might have been a sign when Randy Winn hit a flyout to the warning track in the seventh. Molina hit one a bit deeper, finding the fourth row of the left-field bleachers.

A pitch later, Sandoval took a slashing swing at an outside fastball and hit an opposite-way drive that slipped over the wall in the left-field corner.