Johnson Wins #299

Randy Johnson went six innings and only gave up one run en route to his 299th career win. The Big Unit had good command; he walked just one batter and struck out five.

The Giants bullpen pitched well and did not allow an earned run. Brian Wilson picked up his tenth save in fourteen opportunities.

San Francisco's lineup was able to overcome some shaky defense to cement the win for Johnson. Juan Uribe put the Giants up for good in the second with an RBI single that scored Fred Lewis. The "ground attack" struck in the third inning when Aaron Rowand scored on a double steal. Rowand and Nate Schierholtz drove in two more runs in the sixth to make the score 4-1.

But Emmanuel Burriss' error in the top of the seventh nearly cost the Giants the game. What looked like a routine groundball skidded under his glove into right field. Instead of having nobody on and one out, the Braves got their leadoff man on base for free.

Two walks later the bases were loaded for Garrett Anderson, who hit a two out single to bring Atlanta back to within one.

Burriss attoned for his sin by driving in a run in the bottom half of the inning. Andres Torres tacked on another RBI to give San Francisco a 6-3 lead, and that's how the game would end.

Tidbits

• Randy Johnson will go for his 300th win in Washington D.C. against the Nationals.
• Aaron Rowand continued his hot streak with two doubles and an RBI. In the week leading up to this game Rowand hit .375 with two home runs.
  
• The Giants fourth and fifth outfielders both had RBIs in this game.
  
• I'm pretty sure I saw Chipper Jones use two different bats depending on which side of the plate he was hitting from. His right handed bat was black and his left handed bat had a natural color. Maybe I was seeing things but I don't think so.
• It feels good to sweep the Atlanta Braves:)
  

5-3 Loss to That One Team

This was an ugly game to watch as a Giants fan. So many missed opportunities for the orange and black. And while bad defense and baserunning errors may have cost San Francisco this game, Bruce Bochy sure didn't help.

In the bottom of the 7th the Giants were down by one, 2-3. Nate Shierholtz led off the inning with a pinch hit. Fred Lewis came up to bat next with a runner on first and nobody out. At this point the Giants had a win expectancy of 44.5%.

Lewis managed to work the count to 3-2, at which point the manager had a decision to make. Should he put Shierholtz in motion or have him stay put and let Lewis swing away? Unfortunately for San Francisco fans, Bochy decided to start the runner and the bums ended up with a double play. The Giants were left with nobody on and two outs, and a win expectancy of just 28.4%. That one play made them 16.1% less likely to win the game.

The guys on T.V. hinted that the play might turn out poorly before it happened, and indeed it did. Sending the runner in this situation was a bad idea for a couple of reasons. First, Lewis has been striking out a lot. His strikeout rate is 39% so far this season, and he has now struck out six times in the last two games.

This problem was exacerbated by the fact that according to The Book, putting a runner in motion lowers the wOBA of the batter by 22 points on average. This made it even more likely that Lewis would in fact strikeout.Which is what ended up happening, and Shierholtz was subsequently thrown out at 2nd base.

While the Giants did end up tying the game in the 8th, this play was an example of bad strategy on the part of Bruce Bochy.