Giants 5, Nats 1: After Randy Johnson had a bad outing in his return to Arizona and a scrappy but shaky effort in his return to Seattle -- nights where it seemed nerves played a factor -- I had little hope for him to notch his 300th win on the first go, especially against a team that hit him fairly hard last month.
But thanks to the postponement, the weather, being on the road, being in an unfamiliar jersey, and the fact that half of Washington is busy managing multi-billion dollar loans to inept conglomerates, there was very little fanfare once the Big Unit took the mound. The few hardy fans in attendance were huddled under the overhangs, the media on hand were probably hung over, and his own teammates had a second game in the rain to deal with. It was all probably to his liking, given how understated he was during the post-game interview sessions. Not exactly Mr. Personality. Come on, Randy! It's 300 wins, fer crissakes! So what if Cy Young is still kicking your ass! OK, I know you were joking when you said you only needed 211 more wins to catch Cy. So maybe you are enjoying the moment.
If I might suggest, slice off a few red stitches of the game ball and give them to Emmanuel Burriss, who made the play of the night -- the week? the year? -- to help you out of a jam with a wicked smaht double play.
Oh, and the Giants won the rain-shortened second game 4-1. Matt Cain was the winning pitcher, he has a good curveball, and here's why. He pitched five innings and got credit for a complete game. How stupid is that? If he beats Johan Santana by one for the N.L. Most Complete Gamer of the Year Award, Santana will have a major complaint to file with the statistical authorities.
While we're at it, how about this one: Why does an RBI fly ball get a cool name (sacrifice fly) and not count as an at-bat, but an RBI grounder is an 0-for-1, plus no cool name? Why aren't there "sacrifice grounders"?
Next up: The Giants take on the Florida Marlins and Abdullah Ibrahim takes on Yoshi's S.F. this weekend, with some tickets going for $10. Are you kidding me? Jazz bargain of the year. If you order online, use "senzo" as the discount code on the order form.
