PLENTY LEFT: Barry Zito was on his game last night, as he shut out the Cardinals into the eighth inning to power the Giants to a 5-0 triumph and cut St. Louis’ NLCS lead to 3-2. (
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ST. LOUIS — Just when the Giants needed a Barry good pitching performance, a certain $126 million left-hander stepped up and seemed like money well spent — at least for a night.
Barry Zito’s big moments have been few and far between since leaving Oakland six years ago, but the Giants are still alive in this NLCS largely because of his guts and guile in last night’s Game 5.
It got to a point during the game Zito was actually a trending topic on Twitter. Not that Zito would have noticed.
“I tried Twitter a couple of years ago and it was a pretty devastating experience for me,” Zito said after pitching 7 2/3 shutout innings to lead a 5-0 victory over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. “I learned not to check the inbox, so I got off Twitter. [But] I’m excited that the fans are fired up.”
The Giants, trailing 3-2 in the series, will have Ryan Vogelsong on the mound against Chris Carpenter for Game 6 tomorrow night in San Francisco.
Vogelsong handled the Cardinals in Game 2, allowing one run on four hits over seven innings for the victory. If the Giants intend to pull out another postseason comeback — they were behind 0-2 to the Reds in the NLDS before rallying to win the final three games — they at least have their two best starters aligned in Vogelsong and Matt Cain.
“San Francisco is a great city, but I wish we weren’t going back,” Cardinals third baseman David Freese said.
Zito, who hadn’t won a postseason game since 2006 with Oakland, was brilliant, allowing six hits and one walk with six strikeouts. He resembled what the Giants thought they were getting for $126 million over seven years when they signed him before the 2007 season. Zito instead has mostly disappointed, going 58-69 with a 4.47 ERA. He showed life in 2012 by going 15-8 with a 4.15 ERA.
“He’s been through a lot, I know,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “But this guy, he is some kind of tough. And he’s always been a standup guy with anything. He had it all going tonight.”
Cardinals starter Lance Lynn lasted 3 2/3 innings, allowing four unearned runs (all in the fourth inning) on four hits for the loss.
Pablo Sandoval’s solo homer in the eighth against Mitchell Boggs accounted for the Giants’ final run.
Carlos Beltran returned to the Cardinals lineup after missing most of the previous two games (he played one inning on Wednesday) with a strained left knee. Beltran went 1-for-4 with a stolen base last night after receiving acupuncture treatments on his knee.
Lynn’s throwing error in the fourth with runners on first and second helped the Giants grab a 4-0 lead. Hunter Pence hit a comebacker and Lynn’s throw to second in an attempt to start a double play skipped into center field, allowing Marco Scutaro to score the game’s first run.
“I turned to throw it and I just threw it into the ground,” Lynn said. “I could have gotten us out of the inning. It’s definitely my fault.”
After Gregor Blanco walked to load the bases with two outs, Brandon Crawford delivered a two-run single and Zito’s bunt single brought home the inning’s fourth run. The rally had started with successive singles by Scutaro and Sandoval with one out.
“We got a break tonight on [Lynn’s] throw,” Bochy said. “But we’ve been looking for a big hit and Crawford got that for us.”
The Cardinals squandered chances early. In the second inning, Lynn broke his bat and hit into a double play, ending the inning after Zito intentionally walked the No. 8 hitter, Pete Kozma, to load the bases. Yadier Molina singled leading off the inning and reached third on Freese’s double, but in the key at-bat of the inning, Zito struck out Daniel Descalso before walking Kozma.
In the fourth, the Cardinals got a leadoff double from Allen Craig, but Zito retired the next three batters in order to keep the shutout intact.