Oh And 8. Oh My.

Ron Kroichick - San Francisco Chronicle

Barry Zito staggered into dubious territory Saturday night. He labored through five innings, absorbed another loss and became the first Giants starter to drop his first eight decisions in a season since Jesse Burkett in 1890, a mere 118 years ago.

All that and Zito wasn't even the real culprit in San Francisco's latest loss.

The Giants fell 3-1 to the Chicago White Sox, mostly because their offense showed absolutely no vigor for the second consecutive night. They mounted few threats, wasted the chances they did create and ultimately stumbled to their 10th defeat in 13 games.

Giants hitters were strikingly anemic with runners in scoring position - 1-for-7 on the heels of an 0-for-12 showing Friday night. The Giants have scored only one run in their last 23 innings, and their season total of 151 runs ranks next-to-last in the majors, ahead of only San Diego (148).

It reached the point where hitting coach Carney Lansford convened a meeting before Saturday night's game, hoping to spark an uprising, but more frustration followed. First baseman Rich Aurilia acknowledged the hitters probably are pressing, restless to snap out of their funk.

"We're playing in our home park and not scoring a lot of runs," Aurilia said. "We're getting decent pitching. That's the frustrating thing - our guys are pitching well and keeping us in games, and we're not helping them."

Said manager Bruce Bochy: "We're trying to get this offense going. We just need a big hit here or there, and it will relax everybody."

Zito wasn't the only left-hander trying to retrieve past glory on a cool night in China Basin. He and Chicago's Mark Buehrle were 209-146 combined over their seven previous seasons - and they showed up Saturday night at 1-12 collectively this season, with a 6.16 ERA.

Buehrle did not overpower the Giants, but he threw strikes more reliably than Zito did. The Giants put the ball in play against Buehrle - he collected only one strikeout in his 62/3 innings - but he often had hitters off-balance, tapping soft, harmless grounders.

San Francisco's most costly failure with runners on base came in the seventh inning, with the White Sox leading 3-1. Pinch hitter Steve Holm worked a two-out walk against Buehrle, loading the bases and prompting Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen to summon reliever Octavio Dotel.

Dotel struck out Randy Winn to abruptly end the threat.

Zito's outing probably looked painfully familiar to Giants fans, except he somehow departed with his team trailing only 2-0. That counted as astonishing, given how the White Sox clogged the bases with runners - 14 in all during Zito's five innings (eight hits and six walks).

Many of the hits were soft and well-placed, but Zito again served as his own worst enemy, repeatedly losing contact with the strike zone. He walked at least one batter in every inning he pitched, causing his pitch count to quickly climb from 30 in the first inning to 116 through five.

Zito sat at his locker afterward, ice packs strapped to his shoulder and elbow and a mixture of frustration and resignation in his voice.

"I didn't have a good fastball tonight," he said. "You hear pitchers talk about using their defense and forcing contact, that's what I need to do."

As for his unsightly record, Zito said, "I think I got over that a few starts ago. I just want to compete and be aggressive and give my team a chance to win. I'm obviously not satisfied with the results of my last three starts, but I think they're steps in the right direction."

Zito obviously struggled Saturday night, but he also evaded serious damage. The White Sox stranded 11 runners during his five innings.

"Barry battled his tail off," Bochy said. "He got in a lot of jams, but he battled out there and gave us a chance to win. Our bats are just quiet right now."

Eugenio Velez, pinch hitting for Zito in the fifth, achieved something no Giants hitter had in the team's 18 previous innings: He knocked home a run. It was an innocuous RBI groundout, scoring Jose Castillo, but it represented San Francisco's first run since the fourth inning of Thursday's loss to Houston.