MILWAUKEE — Just before batting practice Friday afternoon, Bengie Molina strolled past Buster Posey in the dugout, and with a smile on his face, told the baby-faced phenom, “Will you stop trying to light a fire under me?”

Hours later, Molina sparked the Giants to a pennant-fueled victory. The Giants’ cleanup-hitting catcher slugged a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning off Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Todd Coffey as the Giants won, 3-2, at Miller Park.
As Molina rounded the bases, he wasn’t looking over his shoulder.
His pregame comment to Posey was in jest, presumably for the benefit of reporters within earshot. Two days earlier, Molina, an impending free agent, had a long talk with Bruce Bochy and reassured the manager that he’d be a focused and determined leader down the stretch.
“I always like the pressure, to tell the truth,” said Molina, after he helped the Giants stay one game behind the Colorado Rockies for the wild card lead. “I’ve always been a kid against the current, always uphill. I’ve battled my butt off to get where I am. I’m not afraid of that. I take the challenge.
“I don’t want to take it by myself, by any means. But I’ll play as hard as I can, try to get important hits and see if we can win.”
The Giants sure needed someone to step forward in a game that otherwise screamed for an unhappy ending. They managed just four hits, their first two runs were unearned, their pitchers issued 10 walks and Barry Zito used everything but duct tape to hold it together for four innings.
Zito’s brevity wasn’t caused by a lack of stuff but to the Brewers’ tenacious approach.
“They put up as good at-bats as I’ve seen,” said Zito, who allowed two runs in the first inning and walked five. “Of 96 pitches, they fouled off 34. They took the balls, and when I made good pitches, they got a piece.”
Zito was even more appreciative of the bullpen, as five relievers — including left-hander Dan Runzler, who made as memorable a three-pitch big league debut as you’ll ever see — strung across five shutout innings.
For that reason, Zito dubbed the game “one of our better wins of the season, if not the best.”
The game moved slowly as the Brewers worked long at-bats against Zito, and Brewers right-hander Jeff Suppan’s start featured more nibbling than a pro bass-fishing tournament.
Suppan had a 5.20 ERA and opponents were hitting .317 off him. The Giants even managed to beat him twice earlier this season.
But he took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, and his bid would’ve gone into the sixth if center fielder Mike Cameron had made a better effort on Travis Ishikawa’s bloop single.
The crowd booed when Cameron eschewed a diving attempt and instead let the bloop fall in front of him.
The boos turned to jeers in the sixth, when Nate Schierholtz’s two-out line drive clanked off Cameron’s glove. Edgar Renteria scored on the error and Aaron Rowand punched a single that scored Juan Uribe with the tying run.
Brian Wilson got redemption against the heart of Milwaukee’s order while recording his 33rd save, but it was a night of many escapes for the Giants bullpen.
Bob Howry bailed out Justin Miller in the fifth after entering a bases-loaded, one-out situation. And Runzler, who was pitching on his fifth level after beginning the season at Low-A Augusta, threw fastballs of 95, 96 and 96 mph to strike out Jody Gerut and strand two runners in the sixth.
“Jeremy Affeldt and Tim Lincecum were joking with me in the dugout,” Runzler said. “Like, ’Oh, it’s that easy, huh?’ “
As for the game overall? No, it wasn’t. But this time of year, the wins all count the same — good, bad and ugly.