Posted By Jeff Fletcher on April 28, 2010 9:46 pm

I was looking up some numbers after today’s tough Giants loss, and I came upon this little stunner:

Brian Wilson is very tough on lefties.

Since the start of the 2009 season, he’s held lefties to a .176 average. Tim Lincecum, by contrast, has held lefties to just a .208 average over that span. Lincecum is a little better against righties (.200)  and Wilson is much worse against righties (.250) over that span.

Considering that Chase Utley and Ryan Howard were looming (right after Placido Polanco) when Bochy lifted Lincecum in favor of Wilson, I suspect that may have been one of his reasons. (Since it wasn’t mentioned in the stories I’ve read so far, I’m guessing no one asked Bochy about that. I didn’t cover the game today.)

Generally speaking, I think it’s easy to blame the manager when something like this happens, but I don’t. I don’t know if Lincecum could have continued or not, but I know that Brian Wilson is a darn good closer. I also know that of the three baserunners he allowed, one was a pitch-around (Howard) and the other was a bad break (Werth’s blooper landing an inch fair).

Now, maybe Bochy could have left Lincecum in for one more batter, Polanco, since he’s a righty. Didn’t matter either way, because Wilson got Polanco.

Of course, it’s also fair to ask Wilson about the walk to Howard. Was he really pitching around him? If so, maybe that was his mistake. Maybe Wilson doesn’t even know how tough he is on lefties. Howard may hit a lot of homers, but generally you don’t have to worry about lefties hitting homers at AT&T Park (yes, I know he’d already hit one in that game, to left field). The other thing Howard does a lot is strike out.