Giants 5, Dodgers 4: The B to the L to the B, Barry Lamar Bonds his bad self showed up at the yard last night and behold, the Giants won a game they probably shouldn't have. Can we order the cardboard cutout right now and glue it to a front-row seat?
If you squint, perhaps you'll see a way the Giants deserved this one. Zito induced a million lazy fly balls and threw six shutout innings before tiring in the seventh. He and Merkin Valdez gave up four runs and the lead. Valdez righted the ship to get a crucial double play plus another scoreless inning. Then Brian Wilson struck out the side in the ninth for the save.
But from Wilson's ninth back to the first inning, Lady Luck -- or perhaps it was her stepsister Barrina Sue -- was everywhere last night. The Dodgers gave the Giants three runs in the first: an outfield collision and a misplayed line drive on consecutive plays were manna from heaven. When the Giants rallied for two in the bottom of the eighth, they used more Dodger sloppiness to their advantage. With first and third and one out, Aurilia hit a swinging bunt down the first base line. Dodger pitcher Bellasario should have conceded the tying run and simply tagged out Richie, but he wildly flipped the ball home. Everyone was safe, still only one out. Bellasario wild pitched the runners to second and third, and Bengie Molina's ground ball to third (should've been the third out) drove in the lead run, and then only because Edgar Renteria broke home so quickly.
Wilson even had some luck: his first batter was Casey Blake, who earlier had homered, and Blake worked the count full. Wilson threw a fastball in the dirt, and Blake swung and missed.
Roster move last night: Osiris Matos came up from AAA to bolster the bullpen, with Eugenio Velez ticketed for Fresno.
I forgot yesterday to pick my players of the week from Week 3, but Bengie Molina is the man on the hittin' side: in only four starts he went 9 for 19 with a homer, three doubles, and a game-winning pinch hit. Runner-up is Little Money Panda Sandoval, who went 8 for 20 with what should have been a game-winning, sweepifying three run bomb Sunday, to boost his numbers into respectability.
Among pitchers, I'm tempted to choose Matt Cain, the only starter who threw two games. But the unsung hero of the week was Jeremy Affeldt, who pitched in all five games and put up stellar numbers. He faced 15 batters, gave up 3 hits, zero walks or earned runs, and struck out 4. He saved Bobby Howry's bacon Wednesday by striking out Giles and Gonzalez with a man on third late in a 0-0 game.
