Barry Brilliant in Besting Birds

Former CY Young winning southpaw, Barry Zito, is up to 3-0 on the year for the San Franscisco Giants. Zito and Cardinals’ hurler, Adam Wainwright dueled through seven scoreless frames before the Giants’ bats found a way to hand St. Louis their first series loss of the season. San Francisco squeezed out two runs in the bottom of the eighth to defeat the Cardinals 2-0 in the second game of a three game home series. The Giants took the series opener Friday night, ending a four game skid. Tim Lincecum’s seven inning outing helped the Giants’ ace to secure his fourth win in a 4-1 final Friday. Yesterday, a vintage Zito zipped through the Redbirds’ roster to earn his first career win against the NL Central foes. The San Francisco lefty struck out ten in a three-hit, 114 pitch gem of a performance.
The first two Cardinals to step to the plate struck out. MVP Albert Pujols grounded out to end the first inning. The Giants’ flamethrower issued a walk to Bengie Molina in the top of the second but received some aid from his defense Molina was caught stealing for the third out. Zito had his way with Tony LaRussa’s visiting Redbirds until allowing a leadoff single to Felipe Lopez in the fourth inning. Zito induced a Pujols double play groundout with runners on first and second base in the fourth, and fanned the slugger with one on in the sixth. Pujols is 1-for-8 so far in the series, with three strikeouts. Zito had a one-two-three fifth, sixth and seventh inning as the lefty dominated the latter frames and improved his eye-popping ERA to 1.32. It was the 31 year old’s 13th double digit strikeout game of his career. Zito’s curveball was crafty and fastball unforgiving in a fine controlled presentation by the highly- paid pitcher. He complemented his signature curve with a slider Saturday and really did not allow the Cardinals to threaten his shutout bid. St. Louis sluggers were off-balance and struggled to compile a rally throughout the game. The brilliant Zito of 2010 bears a striking resemblance to the elevated elite pitcher who captured and dazzled baseball fans with the Oakland A’s earlier in his career. Brian Wilson nailed down the save, his fourth this year, with a one hit ninth.
Wainwright, also undefeated headed into Saturday’s contest and coming off a complete game win against the Mets, hung tough until the eighth. Wainwright yielded just four hits, including the key 0-1 curveball that Nate Schierholtz drilled. Schierholtz opened the eighth frame with a double to right field to represent the second San Francisco hitter to get past first past. Andres Torres pinch-hit for Zito and promptly followed with an RBI single to center for the first recorded run of the game. Torres failed twice to lay down a bunt, but his futile attempts proved more valuable when he pounced on Wainwright’s offering for a base hit to shatter the scoreless tie. Aubrey Huff drove in a run on a sacrifice fly to left for the second Giants’ tally to complete the eighth and rescue Zito from a no-decision. Notably, Wainwright drilled former teammate, Mark DeRosa twice in the St. Louis loss. The Giants scattered seven hits on Pablo Sandoval bobblehead Night. The Panda snagged a pair of singles and scooped a hard one-hopper in the field to preserve the Giants’ fourth shutout at home this season.

Parting Points: Mixed bag- Joe Paterno favors a Big 10 expansion, the Thunder even the series with LA, and the Penguins are moving on after an OT clipping of the Senators.