When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

05.07.2008
5/7/08: Tease

Pirates 3, Giants 1: Two runs in five innings doesn't a quality start make, but Barry Zito showed a flash -- perhaps a tease -- of promise tonight. What was different? First, Pittsburgh is a good offensive club, and seven baserunners in five innings isn't bad. It's not like he was pitching against the Giants. Or the Padres. Second, he got key strikeouts when he needed them: Nady in the first with two on, two out. Bautista in the third, one out, man on second. That's new.

But not all was encouraging. He got lucky with two line drives that turned into double plays, and he threw 99 pitches in five innings. The high pitch count meant the Pirates didn't get to see him a third time, except for their top three batters, and they went ground out, walk, liner into double play. I was interested to see how comfortable Pittsburgh would get the third time around.

I didn't watch and only caught a few innings on the radio, so I didn't get a good feel for the game. Give me your reports. Did Zito labor? Did his stuff look sharp? Were hitters off-balance?

PLODAG: Bengie Big Money Molina, with two hits and the only RBI.

The Upside: Daniel Ortmeier, with a pinch-hit double. Most people say his ceiling is fourth outfielder/pinch-hitter, and since he's converted to all-righty hitting he's done quite well in that role, batting 9-for-26 with 5 doubles and 4 walks. Quietly he's raised his OBP to .370. A fourth OF who gets on base a lot, has doubles power, is fast, and can fill in at first base? I'll take that any day.






[May 8, 2008 12:36 AM]  |  link  |  reply
johnP said

On the radio, they made it sound like the ump was giving a super-pitcher-friendly strike zone. Maybe he was throwing Z a bone today?

[May 8, 2008 12:41 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Frank said

As much as it pains me to admit it, I'm not qualified to comment on Zito.
But, hell, yeah, on Ort. He like 274 other guys had a very poor Spring. But he has been coming around for weeks. Unfortunately for him, so is Aurilia, so he gets no starts at 1b. That I think, is a mistake. I mean, if they're going to give Bowker ABs, they certainly should try to find Ort some regular (not pinch hitting) ABs, preferably at 1b. [Which all goes to say, I am not giving up on him at 1b just yet; hell, the '08 1b experiment never got started. Gentlemen, start your engines.

[May 8, 2008 12:36 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Mr Lomez said

I did a write up of it on my blog, but overall the results were, let's say inconclusive.

He caught a ton of breaks, as you mention, and the Pirates batters looked just incredibly over-anxious to hit the first few times through. Their eyes would light up with every delivery and they were swinging out of their shoes.

But he took advantage and used his change-up well. He also threw a bunch of sliders that he was getting lefties to chase. The curve ball looked good, but he tried sneaking it in for a first pitch strike several times and couldn't. The whole frontal assault on the strike zone thing wasn't exactly at full tilt either.

But hey, the overall results speak for themselves. 2 runs in 5, with 5K's. We've seen worse.

[May 8, 2008 12:39 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Mike New said

I personally thought that Zito did have better command last night than I've seen him have in previous starts. The confidence was definitely up, and he got some AWESOME defense from his friends behind him. It wasn't the Zito of old from his Cy Young days, but it was an improvement. Ultimately, the results were inconclusive. I need to see him more to make a clear cut decision on him.