In a rain-soaked affair, Randy Johnson defeated the Nationals last night to secure his 300th win. The Giants managed to score 5 runs for Johnson — the majority of them came in the 9th after he left the game — and thanks to some tight-rope bullpen work from Brian Wilson, the night ended in victory.
Johnson’s final line of the night was: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO
The damp weather in DC was conducive to ground ball outs. Johnson posted 12 outs on the ground to just 4 in the air. It seemed that over and over the Nats were pounding the ball into the ground. Emmanuel Burriss made a highlight grab that most likely saved the game and preserved RJ’s chances for the win. Not bad for the DC local. At times this year Burriss’ defense has looked a little iffy, but he was solid in both games of the double header.
Maybe the most contested call of the night was Adam Dunn’s called third strike against Brian Wilson in a full-count with the bases-loaded. I watched the game on MASN because of blackout restrictions and the MASN announcers were disgusted with the knee high fastball that was called for strike three against Dunn. Everything from “You can’t fight City Hall” to “Tim Timmons (the umpire) will get the save for this one.” came out of Bob Carpenter and Rob Dibble. It was pathetic. I know that announcers are allowed to occasionally root for their teams, but after hearing Dibble chant “Drop it! Drop it!” on air after the Nationals hit a couple pop fly’s in the infield, I knew I was in broadcasting hell.
By the way, the pitch looked pretty solid on PFX.
Eat it, Dibble.
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UPDATE: A very nice press conference with RJ can be found, here.


Hey, awesome work, showing stats backing up observational evidence on Brian Wilson. We need to come up with a nickname for him: we had John 'The Count' Montefusco, now we have Brian 'Full Count' Wilson. Or maybe, since this is after all Brian Wilson, we can find some kind of Beach Boy connection. Like call him Alley Oop, a la "he can knuckle your head before you count to four." Too much of a reach? I'm not crazy about starting Cain on short rest either. Come on, let's give Billy Sadler a start. He's doing well in Fresno. Or Henry Sosa. They're both already on the 40 man, so you wouldn't have to buy anyone's contract. Pucetas is also on the 40 man, but restricted; anyone know what the terms of his suspension are? Of course, our studs of the future are still in AA. Maybe not quite time yet to bring them up, though.
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