2 Saves, 1 Doval

There are three things you should know about the San Francisco Giants game against the Cincinnati Reds. Well, actually, there are a lot of things you should know, like for instance that the Giants won 11-10, or that they now have a seven-game winning streak, or that they’ve started a season-long 11-game road trip with five straight wins, or that Michael Conforto hit a line drive that did this to Luke Weaver...

... or that LaMonte Wade Jr. left the game with hamstring cramping, or that the Giants sacrificed the designated hitter, or that Wilmer Flores, a day after hitting two doubles and a homer, hit two homers and walked, or that three of the Giants runs came off old friend Derek Law, who didn’t last an inning, or that Brett Wisely tripped while trying to turn what should have been a routine game-ending double play and almost threw the ball away, or that a total of 37 players were used in the game, even though the Giants didn’t use Bryce Johnson, their extra body allotted for the (partial) doubleheader, or that the teams started the day by finishing up a game that had been rained out yesterday and as soon as it ended promptly began a rain delay for their initially scheduled game, which lasted over an hour.

But there are three things you should really know.

The first is this roller coaster:

The second is this ludicrousness:

And the third is that Camilo Doval opened the day by earning the save in the Giants 4-2, 10-inning win in the early evening, and ended the day by earning the save in the Giants 11-10 win in the late evening.

One day, one Doval, two saves.

It wasn’t the sharpest we’ve seen Doval all year, as he allowed a walk and a hit without a strikeout, but I don’t think it was the wear of pitching twice. I think it was that this was an absolute nonsense game constructed out of Costco portions of back-and-forth tomfoolery, and a clean and normal ninth inning would have been an offense to the narrative it tirelessly toiled to create.

Also, Doval hit triple digits six times in his second save.

If you’re wondering when the last time a Giants pitcher had two saves in one day, it was our old friend Robb Nen on July 4, 2000. Those games were a touch less dramatic, with the Giants winning 4-1 and 3-0. He also only faced one batter in the first game, after Liván Hernández came an out away from a complete game.

Also that was 8,414 days ago.

I’m sorry.

So that was the game, and that was the day. The Giants led 1-0 (thanks, Wilmer), then trailed 4-1 (not the best return for Anthony DeSclafani, who only lasted two innings and gave up a pair of two-run homers, but also struck out five), then tied the game 4-4 (thanks again, Wilmer), then trailed 5-4 (on what is classified as a “caught stealing error” by the pitcher, which you don’t see everyday [also not the best performance by Sean Manaea, the offending party]), then led 7-5 (hooray for Mike Yastrzemski two-run doubles), then trailed 8-7 (a day after making his MLB debut, Christian Encarnacion-Strand had a pinch-hit, three-run homer), then were tied (only Wilmer could have a productive double play on this day), then led 11-8 (hooray rookies, as Casey Schmitt had a go-ahead walk, then Luis Matos had a two-run single that scored Blake Sabol and Wisely), then only led 11-10 (ageless wonder Joey Votto strikes again as the Giants long relievers really struggled [another rough one for Jakob Junis]), then somehow won (which you probably didn’t see coming even though I already told you multiple times that it happened).

In summation, baseball.

Epilogue

It was a cold, rainy night, as the wind howled off the sheetmetal and in the distance you could faintly hear a ... oh, my bad, wrong epilogue. I just think we should watch some highlights.

Enjoy.

I repeat: baseball!