SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The fans want Buster Posey to catch, period, and manager Bruce Bochy knows it. So where was the Giants' future backstop Tuesday night? On the bench. Bochy put Bengie Molina behind the plate and made no apologies.
Molina showed his gratitude with one of his best games as a Giant. He hit a pair of home runs, had his first four-hit night of the year and drove in four runs in an 8-4 victory against Arizona. Molina reached 20 homers for the first time in his career.
Pablo Sandoval had quite a night, too. His four hits included a homer and double, and he scored four times.
The Giants' 84th win and 50th home win enabled them to dodge the reaper for one more night. Their path to the postseason is clear. They merely need to win their five remaining games while the Rockies lose their last five and the Braves go no better than 2-3. In that case, the Giants and Rockies will tie for the wild card and meet in San Francisco for a one-game play-in Monday.
Get those sick notes ready, folks.
This could be Molina's final week after three years with the Giants, and Bochy declared before the game that Molina should play some. Their tenures in San Francisco overlap. Bochy clearly has a soft spot for Big Money.
"He's done a terrific job," Bochy said. "I'm happy to have had Bengie my three years here. We don't know what's going to happen. I know Bengie understands that. What's going to happen? I don't know. Bengie doesn't know. But we wouldn't be in this position - it's not a great position, but we're breathing - without Bengie."
Molina struck out in a two-run first inning against Doug Davis, but he singled in the third, hit a two-run homer in the fourth, singled off Yusmeiro Petit in the sixth to drive in Sandoval (who hit a 415-foot ground-rule double) and followed Sandoval's seventh-inning homer against Clay Zavada with another over the left-field wall.
All that offense made a winner of Jonathan Sanchez, who might have had a great night had Miguel Montero called in sick. The Diamondbacks' catcher produced all three runs against Sanchez in 52/3 innings with two homers, one of which landed in McCovey Cove, the first by a visitor in 2009. That is a pretty good comment on the Giants' pitching.
Sanchez has thrown to Molina for most of his big-league career and said, "He's a pretty good catcher. Hopefully, we can get him back here and he can help us like he did the last three years. The way he handles the pitchers is amazing."
The problem is, the Giants would be reluctant to give any catcher a multiyear deal with Posey in the wings, and Molina has said he wants to be an everyday catcher and wants to be paid. With 20 homers and 79 RBIs, he could get his wish somewhere.
This game featured a fantastic defensive play by left fielder Andres Torres to save a run.
With two outs in the fourth inning and the Giants leading 2-1, Ryan Roberts skied a ball to deep left that seemed destined for the seats.
Torres leaped over the wall and tried a backhand catch. He momentarily gloved it, but as the glove slipped off his hand the ball popped out and hit the top of the fence. Luckily for Torres, it returned to the field.
As Torres fell backward, he caught the ball with two bare hands and raised it over his head, trying to persuade the umps that he caught it on the fly. Third-base umpire Dana DeMuth signaled a home run, but Bochy sought and got a video review. The umpire reversed the decision and called it a double. Roberts wound up stranded.
From: MLB.com Arizona (68-89) Lost 1 | San Francisco 8, Arizona 4 |  San Francisco (84-73) Won 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 9/29/09 | Recap: ARI | SF | Wrap | Gameday |
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