Although his starts are far less dominate and far and few between, Randy Johnson is inching closer and closer to that magic number of 300 wins. His performance yesterday was reminiscent of his better days as he pitched into the 7th inning, walked none & struck out 10.

What is so impressive and mind boggling is that Roger Clemens is widely considered the “greatest pitcher of our generation” and even that has come into question with his involvement in the steroid scandal. Clemens whose nickname is “The Rocket” has 110 games of 10 plus strikeouts. But get this; the Big Lefty has him trumped with 211 games of ten plus strikeouts. Randy has long ago locked up his place in the Hall of Fame with an incredible body of work, but now Randy is 11 wins away from the magic 300 and all this as he is now two months shy of his 45 birthday.

In his prime Randy could get away with all sorts of mistakes, like leaving the ball over the plate or walking a batter here and there, because he knew he could reach back and blow a fastball by just about anyone. Now in the twilight of his career he is in what he describes as “pitching” and he really has to locate his pitches better and think about different ways to get today’s hitters out. Having lost some velocity after undergoing numerous back surgeries, he still has good and bad days. Randy seems to be enjoying what might be his last couple of years playing baseball.

Barring any more injuries, he should get to 300 wins in early 2009.  He’s also hoping to lead his young Diamondback team to a postseason or two, and once they get in who knows what can happen. Nobody gave his 2001 team much of a chance against the mighty Yankees and we all know what happened then.