Posted By Jeff Fletcher on September 21, 2009 12:06 pm

When Randy Johnson pitched in relief for the Giants on Saturday, it marked his first regular season relief outing since July 18, 2001. (Of course, we all remember him pitching in relief in the 2001 World Series, and less of us remember him pitching in relief for the Yankees in the ’05 playoffs, but that’s another story.) Anyway, if you happened to check out the box score for Johnson’s July ’01 relief outing, you might have been scratching  your head.

Seven innings of relief? One hit? Seventeen strikeouts?

Well, there’s a story behind that, which I learned with the help of my FanHouse colleague, Ed Price, who covered the ’01 Diamondbacks for the now-defunct East Valley Tribune.

The D-Backs were playing in San Diego. After two innings, there was a light failure at Qualcomm Stadium, so the game was suspended till the next day. The Diamondbacks had a 2-0 lead. The next day, Johnson was the regular scheduled starter, but manager Bob Brenly figured he’d be better off using him in a game the D-Backs were already winning, rather than starting him from scratch in the scheduled game. (UPDATE: Ed just let me know that the other reason Brenly wanted to use Johnson in that game is because the Padres lineup was already stacked with lefties to face right-hander Curt Schilling, who was pitching before the lights went out.)

So Johnson came in “relief,” in the third inning, although for all practical purposes he was a starter in a game that started in the third inning. So now he holds the virtually unbreakable record of strikeouts by a relief pitcher.

Speaking of Johnson, I’d like to see the Giants get him in a home game and then get him out after an effective outing. Let him get his nice ovation, wave his cap to the crowd, and ride off into the sunset. I gotta believe this is the end of his career.