This is the Faustian bargain we’re all a part of. We have to remember these games every time the Giants are losing 2-1, 3-2, 1-1, 0--1...these things do even out. Kind of.
Barry Zito won a Cy Young award once. For most of the past three years, we’ve scratched our heads every time we were on that particular Baseball Reference page. A Cy Young? Was it WWII? Was there a strike on? So it’s nice that every now and again, he reminds us that, yes, he was once very good and, no, he doesn’t like that nerds like me put that kind of statement in the past tense. I didn’t mean to. Dude was good tonight. Present tense.
You might have missed the other happenings tonight. Let’s see, Brian Wilson had a mostly uneventful ninth as he slowly transitions into one of the better relievers in baseball. Buster Posey must have been shaken off eleventy-six times tonight, as he caught his second straight shutout, which rookie catchers can’t do. Oh, and Bengie Molina hit a triple. To complete a cycle. Bengie Molina was one hit short of the cycle, that hit was a triple, and Molina got it. Think about how amazing that is. Molina...
- needed to have a four-hit game
- needed to get a double, which is really, really tough for him compared to other players, and it needed to clank off the glove of the right fielder.
- needed to get a triple. A triple. Bengie Molina needed a triple at the same time he had a double, a single, and a home run.
Video proof, if you need it. Look, I know it’s Zito’s night, but what in the actual hell? Bengie Molina hit for the cycle. The Giants won 1-0, but Bengie Molina hit for the cycle. Somewhere, a baby is being born to a mother and father who love that baby very much, but Bengie Molina hit for the cycle..
Good game, Giants. Good game, Bengie. This is like running into an ex when it’s clear that everything is going absolutely swimmingly for both parties. You got a promotion? Good, well we just bought a 5,000 sq. ft. house. Good, well, our kid just got into Yale. Good, good, that’s swell, and my spouse doesn’t make the same monkey faces during intercourse that you did. Good, good. I’m glad it’s all working out. That’s what the Molina trade/Posey liberation feels like right now.
Also, Bengie Molina hit for the cycle. And Barry Zito pitched eight shutout innings. Didn’t have to use the AK.