Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
With the Olympics beginning a 17-day run, the Giants face more competition for their attention. To keep the sporting public interested, they will have to do much better than their drab showing in a 6-2 loss to the Dodgers on Friday night.
Barry Zito established a career high (or low, depending on your point of view) when he lost for the 14th time this season. He picked a good night to do it, with many regular Giants viewers no doubt watching the Opening Ceremonies from Beijing or attending the always mesmerizing Raiders-49ers exhibition game.
Manny Ramirez made his Dodgers debut in San Francisco and was the last player in blue to reach base, on a sixth-inning Rich Aurilia error. He went 0-for-5 after starting his Dodger career 13-for-23, but no matter. The rest of an all-right-handed lineup did more than enough damage to help Los Angeles win for the 15th time in its last 18 games at China Basin.
Coming off his best start of the year, Zito allowed five runs in five innings. They all scored in a third-inning rally that began with catcher Danny Ardoin's first big-league home run in nearly three years and included a three-run double by Jeff Kent.
Zito fell into a lot of deep counts and hurt himself with high changeups to Kent and Angel Berroa, whose RBI double capped the rally. However, Zito believes other changeups called balls by home-plate umpire Larry Vanover hurt his cause.
"I thought some calls were missed tonight, which was unfortunate," Zito said. "These guys (the umps) are good, but there were a handful of changeups I thought were in the zone. That changes the at-bats. That part is frustrating, but I've got to make better pitches with my changeup.
"The rest of the inning was all right. I had decent stuff. A couple of strange things happened, but that was it."
One might consider it strange that Zito could allow five runs in one inning after pitching eight shutout innings in San Diego the start before, even if the Dodgers, fortified by Ramirez, are a much stronger team.
"That's probably been his biggest issue, that consistency," manager Bruce Bochy said, "because he's thrown some fine ballgames. Big innings have hurt him this season."
While the Dodgers teed off on Zito, Brad Penny returned from the disabled list and held the Giants to one hit in five innings for his first win since May 2. The hit was an RBI double by Bengie Molina, who also homered against reliever Cory Wade.
Giants hitters have struggled against starters who otherwise were scuffling or infirm. Penny was both. He lost seven consecutive decisions before going on the disabled list with a shoulder injury in mid-June.
He returned Friday throwing about 5 mph slower than usual but still made the Giants look weak over five innings. They had three hits overall and drew seven walks but scored only twice. Former Giant Kevin Mitchell watched the game from the owners' box and you knew he probably was thinking, "I could grab a bat and help these guys."
Zito retired Ramirez three times, including a flyball in the fifth that ended the pitcher's night. That had to count as a positive, for as Zito said, "I saw he was hitting .500 after the three outs. I was thinking, 'Whoa. What was he hitting before?' "
It was the old-timer who hits ahead of Ramirez who did the most damage. Kent's three-run double keyed the five-run third, which gave the Dodgers a 5-1 lead. Perhaps Kent was motivated because his boos were not as loud as Ramirez's.
The inning started when Zito fell behind 3-2 to Ardoin, the No. 8 hitter, who then hit his first major-league home run since Sept. 23, 2005, also against the Giants. Ardoin broke a 170-at-bat long-ball drought to tie the game.
One fun moment for the fans was watching rookie Geno Espineli retire Ramirez on a grounder to end the ninth. Espineli looked at the scoreboard and saw Ramirez was due up third in the inning, but once No. 99 got into the box, dreadlocks flowing, Espineli got tunnel vision.
"Since the first couple of outings, I don't look at who is at bat," Espineli said. "When they come up, I try to zone that out so I don't get star struck or pitch around them. It's been working a little bit, so I'll just keep on throwing my stuff."
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