Focused Barry Zito takes charge in Houston

Henry Schulman
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle

It's not that Barry Zito was a lampshade-wearing clubhouse clown during his first three years with the Giants. He was your garden-variety cool dude.

This spring, though, he seemed even more muted and introspective as he scrunched into his corner of Scottsdale Stadium. Perhaps that quietude was one of his methods for building that "appetite for success" he wanted.

If the Giants can get more of what Zito fed them in his 2010 debut Tuesday night, six shutout innings in a 3-0 victory, they happily will let the $126 million pitcher fade into the wallpaper when he does not pitch.

Closer Brian Wilson, one of Zito's closest friends on the team, said the left-hander's focus this spring "just had to do with that will to win, that fire and tenacity one had when he first signed, and wanting to dominate every time he threw the ball."

Zito won his initial start of a season for the first time since 2003 by suffocating a Houston lineup that, truth be told, lacked punch even before Lance Berkman's knee surgery. Still, Zito showed a requisite aggressiveness as he threw first-pitch strikes to 11 of his first 15 hitters and finished his night by retiring the two fiercest Astros, Hunter Pence and Carlos Lee, to strand a runner on second base.

That was a key sequence. The runner, Jeff Keppinger, doubled off the top of the left-field wall. The Astros thought it was a home run and asked for a video replay. It took the umps a long time in the booth downstairs before they upheld the call.

That type of thing can derail a pitcher, but Zito bided his time with some warm-up tosses before getting the final two outs.

"I just had to stay in the zone," Zito said. "A lot of guys were socializing to kill time, but I had to get back on the mound and stay focused."

Zito walked one and struck out five, in contrast with his initial starts with the Giants, 2007-09. He was terrible in those, lasting a total of 14 innings with a 6.42 ERA.

This year, he and Tim Lincecum have opened with 13 shutout innings for the rotation. You're up, Matt Cain.

Waldis Joaquin, Dan Runzler, Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson finished a shutout that propelled the Giants to 2-0 for the first time since they started the 2004 season that way in this building before losing the series finale to Roger Clemens.

For the second night in a row, the offense did just enough, overcoming double plays in the second, third and fourth innings before hanging a three-spot on the board in the sixth against Wandy Rodriguez, who walked Edgar Renteria and Pablo Sandoval on eight pitches for starters.

Aubrey Huff singled for his first Giants RBI, Sandoval performed some nifty tag-avoidance while scoring on a Bengie Molina sacrifice fly, and Juan Uribe singled the other way to produce the third run.

The only regular without a hit in the two games is Aaron Rowand. After that .429 spring, he has opened the season 0-for-10 with three strikeouts and five groundballs. Asked if he might rest Rowand today, manager Bruce Bochy said no, that benching Rowand even to clear his mind would send him the wrong message so early in the season.

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Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E San Francisco 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 8 0 Houston 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 1

0

W: Zito (1-0) L: Rodriguez (0-1) S: Wilson (2)

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Final Boxscore

San Francisco Giants Player AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG A. Rowand, CF 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 E. Renteria, SS 3 1 1 0 1 1 0 .500 .625 .667 P. Sandoval, 3B 3 1 1 0 1 1 1 .286 .375 .286 A. Huff, 1B 4 0 2 1 2 0 0 .375 .375 .375 T. Ishikawa, 1B 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - M. DeRosa, LF 3 1 1 0 1 1 0 .333 .500 .833 B. Molina, C 3 0 0 1 0 0 1 .286 .250 .286 J. Uribe, 2B 4 0 1 1 1 0 1 .429 .375 .429 A. Torres, RF 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 .000 .250 .000 B. Zito, P 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 .500 .500 .500 W. Joaquin, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - D. Runzler, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - S. Romo, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - J. Bowker, PH 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 .400 .400 .400 B. Wilson, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - Totals 31 3 8 3 8 4 6 - - -

Houston Astros Player AB R H RBI TB BB K AVG OBP SLG M. Bourn, CF 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 .125 .125 .125 J. Keppinger, 2B 2 0 2 0 4 2 0 .667 .800 1.333 H. Pence, RF 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 C. Lee, LF 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 .250 .250 .250 P. Feliz, 1B 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 .125 .125 .125 C. Johnson, 3B 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 H. Quintero, C 4 0 1 0 1 0 1 .250 .250 .250 T. Manzella, SS 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .167 .286 .167 W. Rodriguez, P 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 .500 .500 .500 J. Fulchino, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - G. Blum, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .200 .200 .400 B. Lyon, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - M. Lindstrom, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - - Totals 31 0 4 0 6 2 7 - - -

2B: Hou 2, J. Keppinger 2 (2).

San Francisco Giants Player IP H R ER BB K HR BFP Pit B-S ERA OpBA B. Zito (W 1-0) 6.0 3 0 0 1 5 0 22 90 28 - 62 0.00 .143 W. Joaquin (Hld 1) 0.2 1 0 0 0 1 0 4 16 4 - 12 0.00 .333 D. Runzler (Hld 1) 0.2 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 8 5 - 3 0.00 .000 S. Romo (Hld 1) 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 4 1 - 3 0.00 .286 B. Wilson (S 2) 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 13 6 - 7 0.00 .000

Houston Astros Player IP H R ER BB K HR BFP Pit B-S ERA OpBA W. Rodriguez (L 0-1) 6.0 7 3 3 4 4 0 27 96 41 - 55 4.50 .333 J. Fulchino 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 10 2 - 8 0.00 .000 B. Lyon 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 11 3 - 8 0.00 .000 M. Lindstrom 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 4 11 3 - 8 0.00 .250

Errors: Hou 1, W. Rodriguez (1).

Double Plays: Hou 3 (Manzella to Keppinger to P.Feliz; C.Johnson to Keppinger to P.Feliz; C.Johnson to Keppinger to P.Feliz).

Hit by Pitch: Hou, T. Manzella by W. Joaquin.

Umpires: HP--Timmons, 1B--Reyburn, 2B--DiMuro, 3B--Welke.

Time: 2:38

Attendance - 24,237