Giancarlo Stanton helped the Marlins win an extremely well pitched game against the Nationals, scoring Miami’s first and tying run leading off the ninth with a homer. He swung at a 1-2 pitch:

“I figured he wasn’t going to throw a strike — which that wasn’t,” Stanton said. “I just saw fastball and reacted to it.”

Davey Johnson saw the pitch a little differently:

“If you throw something hard over the middle of the plate, he’s going to kill you,” Johnson said. “That was a hanging cutter. It’s a tough one.”

Stanton had a better view, but what’s interesting to me is that Giancarlo swung at a pitch he judged to be a ball. I thought the pitch was border line, just a bit high and inside.

Just yesterday morning, my good friend Jim Storer and I were discussing this very issue, when should a batter swing at a pitch outside the strike zone. My conclusion was that it’s never bad to take a pitch that would be called a ball. Certain batters, like Ichiro Suzuki, get tons of hits by hitting choppers off low pitches and beating them out for infield hits. Vlad Guerrero, with his long arms and legs, had a much bigger strike zone than the rule book indicated. In a game situation like this, Stanton got a pitch he could drive, even though it was out of the zone, and he took advantage of it.

The other thing at work last night was an umpire who was calling strikes. Bryce Harper got himself ejected over two calls he thought went against him, and given that Dan Haren pitched a good game, the ump was probably generous to the pitchers last night. The pitch Stanton hit was too close to take.

The Marlins went on to score a run in the 10th without the aid of a hit, and win the game 2-1. Washington continued their disappointing season.