With the score tied at two in the bottom of the ninth, Ronny Paulino leads off the Pittsburgh half with a single against the Nationals. He reaches third on a sacrifice and a wild pitch, at which point Castillo comes in to pinch run and McLouth steps up, having pinch hit for the pitcher earlier in the game. Now McLouth strikes out in about one quarter of his plate at bats and has a .294 career OBA. The Nationals decide to walk him to set up the double play. In his career with a man on third and less than two out, he's 3 for 15 with two sac flies and nine strikeouts. Why not take a chance striking him out? It seems the odds are a lot higher than his driving in the run.

But he walks, Doumit walks on a full count, then Bautista hits a sacrifice fly to win the game anyway. So the IBB led to a better player getting a chance to hit and drive in the winning run. I can't call the IBB wrong; it just seems that McLouth is a bad enough hitter that it's worth the risk to pitch to him in that situation.