Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle
Someone would need Superman's vision to see the light at the end of the Barry Zito tunnel.
Granted, it is a long tunnel. Zito has another five years plus 30 starts to get it right. But as he fell to 0-5 for the season and 11-18 overall in the Giants' 5-4 loss to Arizona on Tuesday night, it was difficult to watch him waste an early 3-0 lead and believe he is one good effort or one mechanical tweak from starting to earn his hefty paycheck.
The Giants scored three runs for Zito in the first two innings against Brandon Webb, a Herculean effort against one of the National League's most miserly pitchers. By the fourth, that lead was gone, and so was Zito.
Manager Bruce Bochy was not a happy man after this loss, for many reasons. The Giants were 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position and he was ejected in the seventh inning after arguing a call that appeared by be blown by the umpires. But it was clear that Bochy was not happy with Zito's performance after the lefty was staked to such a generous lead.
In one of those "I better not say what I'm really thinking" quotes, Bochy responded to a question about Zito by saying, with lips clenched, "It was not a good night, not a good outing for him. I'll leave it at that."
Zito was not happy either. Nor did he make any excuses.
"We came out and we capitalized on Webb's mistakes," he said. "They gave me a lead of 3-0, and I feel like s -. I let them back in the game. I gave them two runs in a shutdown inning, and then I went out in the fourth and gave up a hit to Webb."
Ah, yes. Webb. The pitcher who batted .095 last season yet twice in seven days crushed Zito with a clutch, two-out hit.
The Giants led 3-2 in the fourth when Webb lined the first pitch into the gap in left-center for a two-run double. Eric Byrnes added a single that scored Webb for a 5-3 Arizona lead. Bochy emerged to argue the call at home. When he returned to the dugout, Zito went with him, his ERA up to 5.61 and destined for the first five-game losing streak of his career.
Zito has been around long enough to know that just as a team can feel extremely confident with a hot pitcher on the mound, a team can lose confidence in a pitcher who consistently struggles. He acknowledged he let down his teammates Tuesday and begged them to "stick with me, because I'm going to get myself out of this. That's what a team does. It picks up guys who scuffle. They're all great guys and I know they're going to do that."
When Randy Winn was asked about the team losing confidence in Zito, he said, "I think that's a little strong. I think he would say he hasn't pitched the way he's capable of. But if we get a few breaks today, a few bounces go differently, and we could have had a different outcome."
Winn is right. The Giants outhit Arizona 13-6 but did not get enough hits at the right time.
Two events loomed large in a one-run loss. First, the Giants squandered a two-on, no-out rally in the third inning when they could have buried Webb. In the seventh, Jose Castillo was thrown out at first by a tenth of a second to end the inning, preventing Bengie Molina from scoring.
Molina had doubled after he hit a chopper that was ruled foul even though it appeared to tick off third baseman Mark Reynolds' glove as he stood in fair territory. That was the call that got Bochy boiling - and tossed for the first time in 2008.
Molina had three hits, as did Fred Lewis, who singled and scored the Giants' first-inning run, then singled home one of two runs in the second inning. Winn also had an RBI hit in the inning.
Emmanuel Burris hit an infield single in the eighth off Tony Peña for his first big-league hit and scored on Lewis' double, closing the gap to 5-4. Molina added a leadoff single in the ninth against closer Brandon Lyon, who retired the next three hitters.
Arizona swept the two-game series and improved to 4-1 against the Giants, who next try their luck behind Matt Cain against Greg Maddux in San Diego tonight. They have not beaten Maddux in nearly five years.
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