I'm no Benitez fan, but he had been pitching reasonably well as a closer this year. We (and I mean those of us who are Giants fans) have been told that he was injured last year, thus the extremely poor performance. It looked like they were not unable to trade him (and his oversize contract) over the winter, so I had been expecting another year of blown saves. As poor perfomances go, this one was not as bad as it looks in the box score because Reyes "single' was a result of poor outfield play and non-communication by the Giants. I still do not see Benitez as any kind of lights out closer, but he has been able to muddle through up until yesterday. Since he's all we have (unless we try making a closer out of Hennessey) he'll have to do, but I have no illusions. Boy, I miss Rob Nen.

He's saved 40+ games three times in his injury-riddled career & has a lifetime ERA of 2.97, so it's not as if he's Tom Niedenfuer dishing out homers.

And NRA LM is right, yesterday wasn't his fault: they dropped an easy fly ball in the OF.