SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The Dodgers conjured quite a magic trick. They made Manny Ramirez vanish. The Mannywood section at Dodger Stadium was gone for the series opener against the Giants. So were the posters bearing his image and the dreadlock wigs in the gift shop.
In political parlance, the Dodgers "disappeared" their best player after he was suspended for 50 games. The face of their franchise exists in name only on a few T-shirts in their main souvenir tent.
Barry Zito, who was paid $126 million to be the face of the Giants, is anything but an apparition. He is a force again and was the real story at Chavez Ravine on Friday night as he captained a 3-1 victory against the Dodgers.
Zito allowed a run in six innings for his first win of 2009, which he deserved a lot earlier, and beat the heretofore undefeated Chad Billingsley to get it. Zito was supposed to be an ace and finally is pitching like it. He has allowed four runs over his last 261/3 innings.
"That's Barry," said Brian Wilson, who got four outs to save the win for his housemate. "You can see fire in his eyes, a rage when he pitches sometimes. It's like he's angry at something."
Maybe Zito has been angry at the way he responded to becoming baseball's highest-paid pitcher, by not doing what made the contract possible. Last year he transformed his delivery, and that matters. But Zito believes the true difference is between his ears.
"I'm more focused than I've been in a handful of years," he said. "I knew I could still do good things and be productive as a pitcher in this game. I showed it at the end of the last two seasons. This year, I wanted to come out and do it from the beginning and not dig myself a hole."
Zito hung a changeup to his first hitter, Rafael Furcal, who doubled. Last year's Zito would have crumbled. This year's Zito struck out Orlando Hudson and Andre Ethier. This year's Zito also got Ethier to foul out with the bases loaded to end the fifth.
He has pitched well enough to win his last four starts, all Giants wins. But he kept getting Cain-ed, with no run support. On Friday, the Giants broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh against Billingsley after Juan Uribe and Emmanuel Burriss singled and Eugenio Velez, batting for Zito, sacrificed.
Aaron Rowand and Pablo Sandoval got the RBIs on a sacrifice fly and an infield hit. The bullpen got the final nine outs, with Wilson doing his best work in the eighth. He struck out Casey Blake to end a 13-pitch duel and strand the tying run.
As the Giants shook hands, they were two games above .500 (15-13) for the first time.
Fans watching in San Francisco had to enjoy a wonderful schadenfreude, laughing at Dodgers fans who laughed at them for supporting Barry Bonds while he was pilloried for alleged steroid use. And make no mistake, Dodgers manager Joe Torre believes this city will rally around Ramirez when his suspension is over.
"In L.A., they're not going to forget what he did here, how he did it, the fun he had doing it and the impact he had," Torre said. "It's not like he's denying he made a mistake. He didn't. They'll welcome him back. I may be off base. I've only been here a year, but that's my sense."
The shock of Ramirez's suspension has worn off, but "I'm not sure it's sunk in yet," Torre said. "We're so used to seeing him since he came on board last year. Reality sets in - it forces itself on you - that he's not here."
Not that Zito would have shrunk from facing Ramirez.
"For sure," he said. "If I look at facing Manny as a chore, I look at being in the big-leagues as a chore. It's fun to dig deep and compete every day and see what's in your heart. With Manny, you had to dig deeper. It was fun."
Rewarded, at last
Barry Zito picked up his first win of the season Friday, but has strung together four strong outings. In his past four starts, the Giants are 4-0 and Zito has a 1.37 ERA:
| April 22 | SD | W 1-0 | 7.0 | 6 | 0 | 5-0 |
| April 27 | LA | W 5-4 | 6.1 | 5 | 3 | 2-3 |
| May 3 | Col | W 1-0 | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 4-1 |
| May 8 | LA | W 3-1 | 6.0 | 8 | 1 | 5-2 |
From: MLB.com
 San Francisco (15-13) Won 2 | San Francisco 3, LA Dodgers 1 |  LA Dodgers (21-10) Lost 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 5/8/09 | Recap: SF | LAD | Wrap | Gameday |
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1 comment:
Even without Manny Ramirez, the Dodgers have held the top spot in the power rankings for practically the entire season. They have to keep going coz; they’ve always been my favourite teams in MLB. Just read about them here:
http://www.dodgersclub.com
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