Welcome back, Mr. Johnson!

The Good

• Pitching: From top to bottom, the Dodger hurlers put on a quality show.  Johnson will get the lion's share of press due to the circumstances behind his achievement.  However, Chan Ho Park and Jonathon Broxton deserve mention for their three innings of no hit, no walk, five strikeout tossing.  Another typically effective night for the pen.
  
• Defense: As mentioned, the arms were fantastic, but those on the mound wouldn't have gotten by without a little help from their friends.  Specifically, the kind of assistance requiring a mitt.  Casey Blake made a terrific snare of a Jose Castillo hot shot to rob a first inning base hit, then followed up by running down Matt Cain's third inning grounder, the out sealed with a spinning throw to first.   After Danny Ardoin had trouble corralling Johnson's untamed toss, he made a desperate throw to nail Randy Winn taking second, but missed Jeff Kent by a mile.  Thankfully, Angel Berroa made, in Torre's words, "a hell of a play" backing up Kent, then nailed the too-greedy Winn at third.  A line drive by Fred Lewis turned into a sweet sliding, third inning grab by Loney.  Kent covered a lot of ground to run down a sixth frame gapper from Lewis and make a strong throw to Loney.  Juan Pierre capped the web gems with a diving catch in the seventh. 
  
  Don't let tonight's two errors fool you (Berroa's even came after a highlight film worthy stab).  "The defense was amazing," gushed Johnson.  "They made some unbelievable plays behind me.  Every time I turned around, I see somebody's glove.  I was like, 'I like being here.' "
  
• Matt Kemp: The outfielder reached base three times- once by error and twice with singles- extending his hitting streak to a career-high 16 games.  His leg took a weird bounce onto Omar Vizquel's glove before reaching the bag on a first inning steal attempt, but he successfully swiped second five frames later.  This proved key when Andre Ethier- hanging tough in a feisty at bat- advanced him to the hot corner with a grounder to second, which put him in position to score after Loney laced one to left center (which went a long way to help make up for three strike outs).
  
  "He's gotten good at bats," nodded Torre of Mr. Sweet 16.  "He's making adjustments during the at bats.  He's growing.  He's learning and he's willing to learn.  I think that's hugely important."
  

The Fortuitously Weird

• The Dodgers' second run: Keeping with the tone established during last night's contest, more nuttiness was on display.  But unlike 24 hours ago, a sixth inning oddity actually played out in the Blue's favor.  With Loney on first, Blake stroked a double into left and Lewis bobbled the ball onto the top of the stands before snatching it up and making the relay to Vizquel, which came in plenty of time to gun down Loney at the plate.  Dodger run denied. 
  
  Or so we all thought. 
  
  An umpire pow wow concluded with Loney was not only given a score, but Blake third base as well.  Reason?  Lewis' gaffe was ruled an error that pushed the ball into the stands, which automatically awards advancement one base per runner.  Loney was already at third when the breakdown happened, meaning he gets the dish gratis.  Same rationale for Blake, who had reached second.  To say the least, a sequence you don't  see every day.  But like I said, kinda par the course for this series.   "Some strange things have happened here for the last couple of days," chuckled an amused Torre.

The Noteworthy

• Juan Pierre's stolen base: Nothing out of the ordinary for this career criminal, but tonight's seventh inning swipe marked # 100 for Pierre while donning a Dodger uni.  With the century mark now on his L.A. resume, Pierre joined Brett Butler, Tommy Harper and Otis Nixon as the only players to steal 100 bags with three different teams.  In Pierre's case, we're talking the Colorado Rockies, the Florida Marlins and now the Los Angeles Dodgers.

AUDIO

• Joe Torre: Download joe_torre_postgame_giants.mp3
• Jason Johnson: Download jason_johnson_postgame_giants.mp3
• Danny Ardoin: Download danny_ardoin_postgame_giants.mp3

AK