GIANTS Embarrassment-Pounded 10-1

Zito Zapped Again

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION TO THE ZITO DILEMMA?

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle

Many times over the course of a season, manager Bruce Bochy shuts his office door and discusses critical issues with his coaching staff and general manager Brian Sabean. As soon as today, Bochy will preside over what could be the most important confab in his season-plus as manager.

The central question: Do the Giants continue to let Barry Zito get his brains beaten every time he takes the mound, or do they take what certainly will be an embarrassing public-relations hit and remove their $126 million pitcher from the rotation and try to get him right?

"We're going to get together here," Bochy said. "We've got to do something different. There's no doubt about that. We can't keep doing what we're doing. We need to get together and get a game plan on what we think is best."

That meeting will be a direct result of Zito's awful three innings in a 10-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. He threw 39 pitches in a six-run first. Although he was hurt by flimsy defense, Zito nonetheless seemed almost incapable of getting an out.

He became the third major-league pitcher in the last 52 years to fall to 0-6 before May 1, Dave Stewart (1984) and Mike Maroth (2003) being the others. His ERA stands at 7.53.

Bochy has two options. He can skip Zito's next scheduled turn at hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia or make Zito a very expensive long reliever.

Asked about Zito in the bullpen, Bochy said, "That's an option. Sure."

If he Giants wanted to send Zito to the bullpen and still keep a five-man rotation, they could turn to Pat Misch, who came up from Triple-A Fresno to replace the injured Kevin Correia and pitched the final six innings to save a bullpen that had to get 26 of 27 outs after Correia got hurt Friday night. Misch allowed two runs, both on Brandon Phillips solo homers, but did what Zito cannot do - throw strikes.

Such a move doubtlessly would shatter Zito, who has made 261 starts without missing one. However, he is not in a position to argue if that is what the brass chooses to do.

"Obviously it's hurting the team right now," Zito said. "It's not a good place to be personally, but those guys make the decisions and we always trust what they want us to do. They know how to manage teams and ballclubs. I've brought it on myself. It's not they're acting rash in a situation that wouldn't call for it."

Zito believes his problems stem from not pitching aggressively. He clearly has a bigger problem. He simply cannot throw the ball where the catcher wants it to go.

"He seems to be falling behind a lot of guys," said Randy Winn, who faced Zito at the pitcher's best in the American League. "I remember when I faced him, I felt I had to swing because he pounded the strike zone."

At the same time, Winn said, the defense has been especially spotty behind Zito this year.

All of the above was clear Sunday as Zito walked Jerry Hairston Jr. to start the game, allowed a Corey Patterson single and walked Jeff Keppinger to load the bases. He worked the count full to Phillips, and as he readied his 3-2 pitch a crowd of 39,050 cheered in encouragement. Zito made the pitch he wanted, getting Phillips to pop up to short right field.

Second baseman Eugenio Velez went back on a ball Winn admitted he should have called for. The ball ticked off Velez's glove, and he kicked it when it hit the ground. A run scored. After Edwin Encarnacion popped out, Joey Votto singled to right and two runs scored as Winn batted the ball not once, but twice.

The rest was all on Zito: a two-run Ryan Freel single and Paul Bako's RBI triple to cap the six-run first, and single runs in the second and third.

There is one lifeline for Zito-watchers. He always pitches badly in April. Sunday marked his fourth career start with eight or more runs allowed, all coming in April. Even when he went 23-5 with a 2.75 ERA to win the 2002 Cy Young Award, he was 1-2, 4.81 in April.

"I think this is a bump in the road like any other. It might be a little bigger bump," said Zito, who declared himself ready to fight for another turnaround.

"I definitely want the ball. I'm not backing down from that," he said. "'Screw it' is not an option. You can't do that in life. You can't just give in. I know what I can do, I know what I've come from and I know what I've done in the past. Those are things you know you have inside of you."