SAN DIEGO — Sometimes people need to hear what they already know. Even reigning Cy Young Award winners.

So when Tim Lincecum was in the midst of allowing a career-high 10 hits to the San Diego Padres in the Giants' 6-1 loss Sunday, catcher Bengie Molina jogged to the mound to deliver an obvious yet unexpected message.

"Hey man, this is not the time to be working on mechanics," Molina told Lincecum. "This is a time to get people out and make pitches. Straight up, you're the best pitcher out there, so come on."

The Giants were swept at Petco Park by the Padres, a team picked to lose 100 games. And Lincecum is frustrated. His outing — 5 1/3 innings, four runs, two unintentional walks, five strikeouts — was an improvement over his scattershot, three-inning start on opening day, but being wild in the strike zone isn't a good thing, either.

"They were really aggressive on fastballs," Lincecum said. "That was obvious, and I gave up a lot of hits on that pitch. I got behind in the count. Guys knew what to look for. I wasn't throwing enough strikes with my other pitches to make a difference."

It was a particularly jarring result against the Padres, a team that practically lifted Lincecum to the National League Cy Young Award last year. He was 3-0 with a 0.67 ERA in six starts against them; in his final outing vs. San Diego on Sept. 13, he threw a four-hit shutout and struck out 12.

Lincecum threw 138 pitches in that start — the most by anyone in a major league game in three seasons. He led the National League with 3,680 pitches thrown last season.

He refuses to believe his slow start is related to last season's workload.

"No, it's not like anything feels dead," said Lincecum (0-1). "I'm just not on. Something's not clicking and I'm going to figure it out."

Lincecum doesn't watch much video between starts, but he plans to break down the tape of his effort Sunday. He'll see plenty of location mistakes with his fastball, including a challenge pitch at the letters that Chase Headley belted for a two-run home run in the third inning.

The Padres took a 3-0 lead in the third, matching their total output against Lincecum in 43?1/3 innings last season.

Lincecum didn't sense the Padres employed a new strategy against him. They just hit mistakes, and he kept making them.

"You look at the big picture of this game and it didn't look too good for me," he said. "I don't know if you guys could see it on my face. "... I tried to keep my poise out there, but "... it was just a rough game."

Lincecum's afternoon could have been worse. He struck out pitcher Chris Young to strand the bases loaded in the second inning; Jeremy Affeldt inherited three of Lincecum's runners in the sixth and induced a double-play grounder to end the inning.

The Giants pounded Young in a Cactus League start, but the 6-foot-10 right-hander was in good form Sunday. Molina broke up Young's no-hit bid with a single leading off the fifth inning and scored the Giants' only run when Headley bobbled a ball in left field.

The Giants had their foibles in the outfield, too. Fred Lewis had trouble seeing the ball off the bat and reacted poorly to a pair of hits. Eugenio Velez overran a ball in center field for an error that led to an unearned run.

Their young corner infielders, Travis Ishikawa and Pablo Sandoval, were 2 for 21 in the series. It should be noted, though, that Ishikawa made several loud outs.

Manager Bruce Bochy said he doesn't plan drastic changes when the Giants play in the Los Angeles Dodgers' home opener today.

"You've got to stay behind these guys," Bochy said.