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Posting this very early since, at 4:05pm [Arizona time], the Giants will be playing the Nationals and Randy Johnson will be going for win #300. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, it's a significant milestone and so I am exercising my Doc Marten-wearing, mint julep-sipping prerogative to open up this thread to follow that game as well as our own, later tonight.
The entire tone of this series flipped abruptly in one inning last night. Before the bottom of the eighth, it looked like Arizona was set fair for victory, taking the set and giving them an opportunity to sweep Los Angeles in their own park. Now, it seems like it's going to be a struggle to avoid dropping the series, especially with Jon Garland on the mound facing Chad Billingsley. Garland's last outing was awful, but if there's any comfort, it's that he has been much better on the road - his ERA splits to date are 2.13 vs. 8.71, with a road OPS 385 points better. It may largely be BABIP-related: Garland's "true" form is likely somewhere in the middle.
For Billingsley, the reverse is true - his home ERA is more than twice that on the road, though since his Dodger Stadium number is still only 3.66, we're not exactly talking lit up like Tony 'House of' Peña this series. All told, opponents have only managed a line of .230/.319/.306 against him, with right-handers below the Uecker Line, so expect to see as many southpaws crammed into the line-up as possible.
Probably not going to be about. Going full bore on the house-move thing, and have to take several boxes of books, DVDs, etc. over to Half-Price Books tonight, see what we can get for them! Azreous on the recap, and even if the game sucks (and after last night, my jaded state of fandom suspects this is certainly the most likely scenario), he can maybe talk about Randy Johnson instead.
Lineup
- Lopez - 2B
- Parra - LF
- Upton - RF
- Drew - SS
- Reynolds - 3B
- Montero - C
- Young - CF
- Whitesell - 1B
- Garland - P