Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
There is something sad but oddly intriguing about watching a pair of once-terrific pitchers slug it out when they no longer reside at the top of their games.
Barry Zito and Pedro Martinez played scramble-ball Tuesday night. When once these pitchers might have engaged in a high-voltage strikeout-for-strikeout duel, their first regular-season meeting evolved into a game of "Which guy gets into one mess too many?"
The answer was Zito, who reverted to his April form in one of his and the Giants' most hideous showings of the season. The Mets scored eight runs in the fifth inning, five against Zito, and took a 9-1 lead on the way to a 9-6 victory.
Travis Denker's first big-league homer, a three-run blow in the ninth against Scott Schoenweis, tightened the final score. The Mets were forced to go to closer Billy Wagner, a small victory for the Giants in what had been an eight-run game. Wagner got a double-play ball from Aaron Rowand to end it.
All told, Zito allowed six runs (five earned) in 41/3innings. He walked five and struck out one in his worst effort since that one-start break. He fell to 1-9 and remains winless at home this year. After pitching to a 7.53 ERA in April and 3.49 in May, Zito regressed in his first June start.
"I just think walks were my downfall tonight," he said. "I had pretty good stuff, but walking guys, falling behind, was the reason. I don't want to go out there and have a blowout game, but my body feels good. I've got to put this one behind me and keep going."
Martinez allowed three runs over six innings and won in his return from a hamstring injury that knocked him out of his first start of the year. He also had two hits and an RBI in his first victory against the Giants since 1997, when he was with the Montreal Expos.
As the game yawned into the frigid night, it became harder to remember that Martinez and Zito were locked in a 1-1 duel - the run against Zito unearned - when Zito took the mound for the fifth inning. His night, already a tad wobbly, collapsed into a groaning heap.
Zito started the inning by issuing his fourth walk, to Damion Easley. David Wright singled and Carlos Beltran lashed a first-pitch double past third to score Easley and send Wright to third, whence he scored on Ryan Church's sacrifice fly.
Zito walked Fernando Tatis before his night ended on a strange and pivotal play. Carlos Delgado hit a high chopper to Omar Vizquel, who hoped to end the inning by running to second, stepping on the bag and turning a double play. But his dash to the bag and his throw to first both were late. Beltran scored to make it a 4-1 game. More important, there still was one out.
Asked if Vizquel should have thrown to first to get the sure out and stanch a bigger inning, manager Bruce Bochy said yes, "and I think he will say that, too."
Things got only worse with Vinnie Chulk on the mound. Ramon Castro singled to load the bases and Martinez got an RBI with his second hit of the game. With the infield in and the bases still loaded, Ray Durham (who later left with a calf injury) muffed an easy grounder by Jose Reyes to get another run home. Easley, batting for the second time in the inning, fired the coup de grace: a three-run double to left-center.
Mets 9, Giants 1.
Bochy did not call Zito's start a setback, saying, "I think overall it wasn't as bad as the numbers showed. He's been throwing the ball better. The last few starts, he's been better. He had a pretty good game into the fifth, and once he came out, the floodgates opened."
The Giants scored twice in the bottom of the fifth, Fred Lewis launching the rally against Martinez with a double. The key for New York were shutdown innings by Joe Smith (seventh) and Pedro Feliciano (eighth), which prevented the Giants from inching back.
Denker will remember his three-run homer in the ninth, fondly and forever, but in the scheme of things, it did not impact a Martinez-Zito matchup that was settled long before.
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