Guillermo

Rodriguez

The WGN crew was speculating that it might be a vision problem. Bengie Molina, who was supposed to have the day off, took over.

Consider him day-to-day. Bengie Molina likely will catch Thursday.

Rodriguez’s blast in the seventh tied the game at 4-4, with Rich Aurilia driving in Pedro Feliz to take the lead in the eighth. The backup catcher has done a fine job for the Giants, going 19-for-68 with six doubles and eight walks while playing sporadically.

This sure says a lot about how the Giants regard Justin Knoedler these days. Knoedler had 200 points of OPS on Rodriguez at Triple-A, yet the Giants chose to go with the 29-year-old defensive specialist instead. They’ll be on the lookout for a new No. 2 catcher.

Bengie Molina was unable to get a full day off Wednesday when Rodriguez had to leave in the fifth. As a result, he’ll rest today.

The Brewers were ahead 4-3 entering the seventh, but the Giants strung together three two-out walks off reliever Carlos Villanueva. That set up Rodriguez for a two-run single to center to put the Giants on top. The win was just the second in the last nine games for the Giants, who are still 13 games out in the NL West.

Rodriguez, 31, hasn’t appeared in a major league game since the 2007 season as a member of the Giants. He batted .244/.279/.368 with five homers and 30 RBI in 89 games between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk this season. He’ll be a third catcher down the stretch.

Rodriguez spent the bulk of 2007 as Bengie Molina’s backup, but whatever it was that made him an attractive choice then didn’t help him this year, as he had spent all season in the minors, much of it hurt. He hit .266/.349/.351 in Triple-A when healthy.

It seemed likely that Rodriguez would get the backup catcher’s job by default, as he’s a better defender than Eliezer Alfonzo and Alfonzo has had a terrible spring at the plate. However, Rodriguez wasn’t any good himself and now the Giants are in the market for a better backup. Bengie Molina will play so frequently that the Giants’ backup catcher probably won’t have any fantasy value anyway.