SAN FRANCISCO — Every pitcher has back problems at some point in his career.
Tim Lincecum is not every pitcher.

And this is not a good point in his career for his back to go “ouch.” Let alone a good time in the season.
In other words, I am not completely buying the Giants’ implication that Lincecum’s lower-back issues — which caused him to miss his scheduled start Tuesday night against San Diego — are just a minor speed bump for him and the team.
That’s the official spin, however. Giants manager Bruce Bochy, in pregame remarks to reporters, tried doggedly to maintain an “all is well” facade. He was moderately successful.
First, someone asked Bochy if Lincecum would miss a complete turn in the rotation and not pitch again until next week. Bochy said he didn’t know. Someone else asked if Lincecum simply needed an extra day or two of rest and might start Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bochy said he didn’t know that, either. There were more questions. Followed by more polite, unenlightening answers.
“I think the best thing for us,” Bochy finally said, “is to talk about all of this in the next couple of days “I don’t want to go into specifics.”
My experience: Teams that are reluctant to go into specifics do so generally because they don’t like the specifics.
I don’t want to say Lincecum’s injury is more serious than “lower-left-side soreness” because (A) I have no idea if that’s true and (B) Lincecum did not make an appearance in the Giants’ locker room during the open media window for us to observe or ask him.
I don’t want to promise that the Giants can’t win a playoff spot without Lincecum, but “well, the Giants can’t win a playoff spot without Lincecum. On that point, I do have an idea. The Giants are a fabulously interesting team this season but also dreadfully fragile. For them to win a playoff spot, every component must be in working order. Most especially their Cy Young component.
Lincecum’s replacement Tuesday night was minor-league call-up Madison Bumgarner, a 20-year-old left-hander who began this season with the San Jose Giants. Bumgarner, a 2007 first-round draft pick, should be a terrific impact starter and thrill the fans at AT&T Park in 2011.
Bumgarner was admirably cool for a kid barely out of his teens. He gave up two home runs in his first five innings, but walked no batters. He left with one out in the top of the sixth after throwing 76 pitches. The Giants led 3-2 at the time.
That was about the best anyone could wish from Bumgarner. But he can’t fill Lincecum’s cleats the rest of the way. These “next couple of days” are going to bear watching.
We all know the deal with Lincecum. Ever since his high school days in Seattle, he has fought the perception that he is a fragile athlete because of his wiry build and his funky pitching motion. He is listed at 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds but appears smaller.
To the grizzled, old baseball folk who don’t like Lincecum’s mechanics, he has always been a medical problem waiting to happen. It’s understandable. Tim Hudson, the former Oakland Athletic who has a Lincecum-type build, was always having pains in his “oblique” area and has made just two starts this season for Atlanta. Other pitchers of small stature have had shortened careers.
After the All-Star Game in July, purely by chance, I wound up on a television set with Joe Morgan, the Hall of Famer and announcer. We talked about the Giants’ great young pitching duo of Lincecum and Matt Cain. We raised the hypothetical question the Giants might one day face: If your team can only afford to pay and keep one of the two, which would it be?
Morgan did not hesitate. He said he would keep Cain — not because Lincecum was less of a pitcher, but because Cain has a taller and sturdier frame (6-foot-3, 246 pounds), which meant he should be more durable over the course of his career. I concurred. No one wants to see Lincecum have medical problems. But no one should be shocked.
Still, we will have to trust the Giants’ version of this particular injury until proven otherwise. That version goes like this: Lincecum’s back trouble first surfaced Sunday evening when the team plane landed from Milwaukee at the end of their trip. Lincecum reported pain and stiffness in his back at that time. The condition became worse Monday. A call was placed to Connecticut for Bumgarner. Lincecum felt a little better Tuesday but not good enough to start.
That could be exactly the case. But if you’ve been thinking Lincecum’s effectiveness has diminished since the All-Star break, you’ve been correct. Though not much. Before the break he had a 10-2 record with a 2.32 ERA. Since then, he has won just three of six decisions but his ERA has been about the same (2.35).
The possible red flag: During late August, in back-to-back starts, he threw 121 and 127 pitches. That is not back-friendly.
Some of the conspiracy theorists were already floating murmurs Tuesday that Lincecum’s injury was phony, that the Giants merely wanted to push back his next start so that he could face both the Dodgers and Rockies on this homestand. I don’t buy that at all. In the Giants’ situation, each game and each victory is too precious to waste. And Lincecum’s back is too precious to dismiss as just a minor speed bump.