Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
Manager Bruce Bochy went fishing on Lake Erie on Wednesday and caught a walleye, which could not have been as ornery as the big fish he had to hook a few hours later. In the seventh inning of a 4-1 Giants victory, Bochy came to get Barry Zito, who - finally - was pitching out of his mind.
Zito had a shutout working and was not happy. When he saw Bochy coming, he slammed the ball into his glove and turned away. That was the fire the fans have been waiting to see, not to mention the 62/3 dominating innings against the Indians.
Zito ultimately was charged with a run, which scored on a hit against Keiichi Yabu, but it did not matter. Nothing that happened after Bochy reeled in his starter could have changed the fact that Zito had his best game of the year and his third win.
"When you saw him out there on the mound, he just had a great look about him," Bochy said. "That's the Zito we knew. He had a good rhythm out there, pounded the zone and went after them."
All the standard caveats apply. It was one game against a team that has been challenged offensively with two of its best hitters, Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner, on the disabled list. Still, Zito threw fastballs, sliders, curveballs and changeups for strikes and hit catcher Bengie Molina's target more of than not until the seventh inning, when Kelly Shoppach's two-out double ended his night at 109 pitches.
Zito struck out his first hitter, Grady Sizemore, on three pitches - fastball, curveball, slider - then struck out Jamey Carroll. Zito struck out four in all and did not walk a batter for the first time all season.
He threw his heretofore limp fastball consistently at 87 mph and touched 88. He did not allow an Indian to reach second base until he threw a wild pitch in the sixth inning.
"You look at his strikeouts and how many walks he had (for the season) and you wanted to be patient," Carroll said. "But tonight he was a little different. He was like the old Zito."
Inconceivably, this was the same Zito who allowed 27 runs in the first and second innings over his first 15 starts, who had a 6.32 ERA and one week earlier, was drummed out of a home game against Detroit after two innings. He faced 15 batters that day and allowed nine baserunners and five runs.
So he did he get from there to Cleveland?
Much work has gone into this with pitching coach Dave Righetti and bullpen coach Mark Gardner. Zito rediscovered a two-seam fastball and lowered his arm slot to make that pitch move. That, in turn, has helped him throw harder. But a change of attitude, not mechanics, put him over the top.
"Just letting it fly and trusting yourself was the key," Zito said. "That's the hardest thing to do in life, the hardest thing to do in baseball. When you do it, you usually see good results, which is something I haven't been able to do a lot this year.
"You've got to try something different. I've tried to do so many different things, tweaking my mechanics. Sometimes you've just got to let it go and stop trying to control things and let things run their course. It's about self-trust."
Staff meetings might be a pain in the rump, but Zito apparently benefited from a meeting with Righetti, Gardner, Bochy and general manager Brian Sabean after the Detroit fiasco. They told Zito not to worry about his 2-11 record and staggering ERA and simply concentrate on giving the team innings. Zito said he complied.
"If I look at my record and statistics, they can't really get any worse," he said. "It's good to sometimes let yourself think it's not worth worrying about failing because a) that hasn't worked in the past and b) who cares?"
Zito had a 2-0 cushion before he threw a pitch. Jose Castillo, who is raking it in Cleveland, singled to start a rally that ended with Aaron Rowand's two-run single. Castillo later hit the Giants' first home run in 219 at-bats. John Bowker who had the team's most recent homer June 16, then went deep in the eighth.
The Giants got their first series win since that four-game sweep in Washington (June 6-9) and their first interleague series win of the year. They hope they gained something bigger - a shot of confidence for a pitcher who definitely needed it. It will not take long to find out. Zito's next start comes Monday against the Cubs, by far the best-hitting team in the National League.
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