The magnitude of Sunday's game became clear when Giants manager Bruce Bochy hopped out of the dugout and motioned for Brian Wilson to pitch - with one out in the eighth inning.
Wilson soon ended the rampant craziness in China Basin. He restored some semblance of order to a wild affair, pocketing the final five outs as the Giants beat Arizona 9-7 and avoided a costly sweep.
The victory trimmed San Diego's National League West lead to five games and kept the Giants 1 1/2 behind Philadelphia in the wild-card race. In the context of these taut races, and with September fast approaching, another loss to last-place Arizona would have counted as mighty deflating.
"The last thing we wanted to do was get swept, and the guys fought hard to make sure it didn't happen," Bochy said.
They blew a 5-1 lead, quickly moved back ahead and then stood on the brink of losing the lead again. So the call went to Wilson, who had pitched only once in San Francisco's previous seven games.
Wilson channeled his inner Goose Gossage - not a stretch given his long hair, mound presence and howling fastball - and didn't allow another Diamondback to slither across home plate. The 33-pitch outing spoke to Wilson's durability and fortitude in an era in which closers are protected like precious jewels.
This was Wilson's fourth five-out save this season and his first since June 16. He also has four four-out saves.
"I don't think closers should only have to get three outs," Wilson said. "They pay you to do exactly what they need. If they call you in the seventh to get nine outs, then you do it."
Wilson (36th save) was one of the few predictable elements in a game featuring abundant quirkiness. To wit:
-- Matt Cain, after watching his predecessors allow a combined 13 first-inning runs over the past three games, nearly followed suit. Arizona put runners on second and third with nobody out - and Cain struck out the side, launching another solid outing.
-- Catcher Eli Whiteside and Cain, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters, started the Giants' first two rallies.
-- Cain (with help from Whiteside) threw three wild pitches in one inning.
-- After blowing their lead, the Giants regained it with a three-run rally, fueled in part by Aubrey Huff's ground-rule double - which Arizona left fielder Gerardo Parra lost in the sun.
-- The Diamondbacks cut their deficit to 8-7 when Parra boldly/foolishly came home from second on an infield grounder. The next batter hit a slow roller down the third-base line - called foul by third-base umpire Jerry Meals, then correctly overruled by plate ump Dan Iassogna.
"That game had about everything," Bochy said. "We just don't do anything easy."
All that mattered, ultimately, was Cain ending a stretch of bad outings by Giants starters and Jose Guillen extending his run of hot hitting. Guillen's two-run single in the seventh gave the Giants the lead for good.
"He's changed our club," Bochy said of Guillen, who's hitting .372 since his arrival. "We've been putting more runs on the board."
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