#RallyZito

On December 29, 2006, Barry Zito was signed by the Giants to a 7 year $126 million contract, the highest ever paid to a pitcher at the time. Zito won the AL Cy Young in 2002 and was a 3 time All Star before coming across the bay. As he was 29 in his first year as a Giant, many fans thought he was past his prime and it was silly to give him so much money over almost a decade. As the 2007 season started, it seemed the fans were right as he went 11-13, under .500 for the first time in his career. In 2008, he lead the league in losses with 17 posting a 5.15 ERA. Over the next 3 seasons he would go 22-31 with a 4.31 ERA and gave up a HR once every 9 innings.

Entering 2012 a now 34 year old Zito was trying to prove he could still pitch. His first start came in Colorado, the scariest yard to play in if you’re a Giant. But Zito came in and threw a complete game shutout on 114 pitches for an 83 GSc (it would be his highest GSc of the year). He would win 3 of his first 4 starts. Then in the second half of 2012 he was on fire as he went 12-3, beating the Dodgers twice. From August 7th on he didn’t lose a game winning 11 straight decisions for a final record of 15-8, the most wins for him (16) since his final season with the A’s. This is what the $126 million was for. Now he just needed to replicate his regular season performance in October. Easy right? In his first start agains the Reds in NLDS Game 4 he was only able to get through 2.2 innings allowing 4 hits, 2 runs, and 4 walks on 76 pitches! The Reds made him work. That was an elimination game and now, 9 days later, he was on the mound for the Giants trying to save their season in their next elimination game: NLCS Game 5 in St. Louis. Let’s talk about that one.

The Most Important Inning – Defensively

Unlike every game in Cincinnati, the first inning in Game 5 in St. Louis was not very stressful as Zito got through it on 16 pitches. But the scariest inning for him was right around the corner. This Cardinals lineup featured guys like Yadier Molina, Matt Holliday, Carlos Beltran, and 2011 World Series hero David Freese. Molina and Freese were due up to start the bottom of the 2nd and after 2 pitches the Cards had guys on 2nd and 3rd and no one was even close to out. Yadi, with some 6-16 career ownage on Zito, singled to center, and Freese hit a bloop down the right field line that a diving Pence just couldn’t reach. With anyone else running it would be 1-0 Cards but Yadi had none speed. It was time to dig deep. Being down 2-0 in this elimination game wasn’t in the script and Bochy was pacing around early. Daniel Descalso was coming to the plate and he could smell RBIs and a trip to the World Series. It was lefty vs. lefty and Zito’s first pitch missed outside, ball 1. Then he drops a curve ball that just nicks the bottom of the zone for a strike. Zito clearly not trying to give him anything good to hit. Descalso fouls off the 1-1 and is now behind in the count on a well placed fastball on the outside. Zito, working rather quickly, shakes Buster twice then they agree. Another curve ball is fouled away, this one in the dirt. A good job by Descalso to even get a piece of that one. Zito’s got him right where he wants him now. The next 1-2 is a fastball that Descalso has to lean out of the way of as it was way high. A bit of an overthrow by Barry. The crowd gets on Zito for that one. 2-2 now, don’t let him get away here. On the 6th pitch of the AB Zito blows an 84 mph fastball by Descalso who was just under it. A scary pitch as it was up in the zone, but it was just too up for the Cardinals second baseman. One out.

The Giants then walk Pete Kozma to load the bases for starting pitcher Lance Lynn. Zito drops a little slider on the outside for strike one. Then on a big curveball Lynn breaks his bat as he hits a chopper right at Crawford who easily turns 2 with Scutaro to get Zito out of the inning. Kozma came in hard at second but Scutaro was too slippery and made a good throw to Belt. You gotta think that Matheny should have told Lynn to not even swing in that scenario. Bases loaded 1 out with your pitcher up in a playoff game? Make him strikeout so you can have your leadoff guy go up with a chance to drive in a couple. Don’t let your pitcher end the inning like that! Come on, Matheny! That’s why we hired Kapler! From the end of the 2nd through the 8th, Zito never faced more than 4 batters an inning. Quite the performance.

The Most Important Inning – Offensively

Entering the top of the 4th inning, Lance Lynn was dealing. He was at 38 pitches and had struck out 4 Giants in a row and had yet to give up a hit. But that was all about to change and it was started with the series MVP Marco Scutaro. On a 1-2 count Scutaro lined one into right field for the Giants first hit of the game. Then came the soon to be World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval and he rips the 2nd pitch of the at bat into right field as well and it’s 2 on and nobody out for the season MVP Buster Posey. What could be better? Well, Posey would strike out on 3 pitches, Lynn’s 6th strike out. Now, Hunter Pence has never been an MVP, but he was about to good things regardless! Hunter takes ball 1 and Molina jogs out to the mound. After a chat, Lynn throws another sharp breaking ball that Pence drills foul down the left field line. Pence looks hitterish, ready to go. The 50th pitch of the game is a swing and a miss by Pence on a slider that was 6 inches outside. Now it’s 1-2. Lynn fires a fastball right in the same spot as the slider but Pence takes and it’s a ball, 2-2. Then something magical happened. It was on the very next pitch that the rest of the postseason went the Giants way. It’s not often you can pinpoint these things, but when I look back on it, this was the play where it all changed. Lynn, always looking really sweaty had 2 strikes on Pence and on the 5th pitch of the at bat, Pence hits a soft little chopper that Lynn comes off the mound and makes a play on. With Panda’s speed at first, he’s got time to throw to second base and that’s exactly what he does: throws the ball right at second base. The base. And no one’s there! The ball bounces off the base and rolls into shallow center field. Scutaro scores easily, and Panda, after colliding with Kozma, takes third and it’s 1-0 Giants. A bizarre play you may never see again.

Belt would make a quick appearance in this inning as he hit a little tiny pop up to 2nd base on the first pitch. Now back to the action. Gregor Blanco is up now with guys on 2nd and 3rd. Blanco puts up a great AB as he eventually walks on 5 pitches. Lynn seemed to have lost his stuff when his throw hit the bag as several of those pitches to Blanco weren’t even close. Matheny starts to stir as Crawford digs in with the bases loaded and 2 outs. Lynn’s now at 58 pitches as the Giants have made him throw 20 this inning. Crawford takes a ball low and Molina goes out to have another talk. Big moment in this game now as the Cardinal bullpen gets throwing. Craw takes the second pitch for a strike, then the next two are outside to make it 3-1 now. More easy takes on balls. Lynn’s lost it and Craw’s in a great hitter’s count. Next pitch, Crawford fouls off a fastball right down the middle, full count. The crowd gets up and gets loud, also waving white surrender towels just like the Reds fans! Crazy! On the full count pitch to Crawford, Lynn leaves a slider up that catches a little too much of the zone and Craw hits a low liner right back up him into center. Panda scores, Pence scores, and Blanco takes 3rd! A huge 2 strike, 2 out, 2 RBI rap for Craw to put the Giants up 3-0. Those 3 runs would be more than the Cardinals would score the rest of the series! This brought up Zito (#RallyZito) who was not content to just go up and strike out. He swings and misses on the first pitch, wanting RBIs of his own. Or maybe that was his plan. Swing at the first pitch so they don’t think you’re going to bunt. He’s clearly going to see strikes. As Zito gets back in the box, a very observant fan may have noticed him checking out where Freese was playing at 3rd. Freese was way deep, not expecting the bunt. On the second pitch from Lynn, Zito turns around to bunt at the last moment and drops down a gem right down the third baseline! Freese picks it barehanded and throws to first but it’s late and high, pulling Craig off the base, and Blanco scores making it 4-0!

That was it for Lynn and he cannot get through 4 innings again as the Giants tagged him for 4 runs in the 4th in Game 2 back in San Francisco. It’s not often a pitcher knocks out another pitcher in the postseason but Zito did it tonight and it was the last time Lynn pitched in 2012.

The Biggest Hit

The biggest hit in this game came in the 4th inning we just talked about as Brandon Crawford drove in 2 runs with his base hit to center. That was huge for Craw as he had just gone 2-11 in the NLDS against Cincinnati and was at this point 3-14 against the Cards. He was grinding, seeing a lot of pitches, and finally came through with guys on base. Although they weren’t the winning runs of this game (technically) they did make it much easier on Zito and Bochy the rest of the way. Plus it’s huge mentally for a guy struggling like that. Way to come through, Craw.

Odd Stats

This was the 4th elimination game the Giants had won in a row. Over this wonderful six year run of Giants baseball (2010-2016), they won 9 consecutive elimination games out scoring opponents by 39 runs! That doesn’t sound like the Giants. Don’t we win every game by 1 run? In that stint Giants pitching shut out opponents 4 times!

In Game 4 of this series the Cardinals scored off Jeremy Affeldt in bottom of the 7th, and then over the next 19.1 innings scored only a single run off Giants’ pitching (Allen Craig RBI single off Vogey in T6 of G6). Meanwhile, the Giants were crushing as they scored 21 runs in that same span! That’s how you win a pennant. The Cardinals were only shutout at home twice all year: a 4-0 loss to the Phillies on May 26, and they took a 15-0 pounding by Vogey and the Giants on August 8. Zito’s Game Score of 72 was his highest of his final 17 starts of the year, including his brilliant start against the Tigers in Game 1 of the World Series.

A Great At Bat

Pablo Sandoval was hot in the postseason. He tallied 7 hits against the Reds batting .333 and had 5 more hits in the NLCS already. He had homered late in Game 4 the night before in an 8-3 loss and was looking to make another impact tonight. By the 8th inning of Game 5 he was 1-3 and set to lead off against Mitchell Boggs. On the first pitch Boggs snuck a slider that just scraped the outside for strike one. Panda backs out of the box grimacing about the call, already down 0-1. The second pitch was an easy take outside to even the count. Then Panda fouls 95 from Boggs right off Molina’s glove for strike two. On the 4th pitch, Sandoval lines one passed Craig at first base but it lands foul. He must have hit that one 105 miles an hour. Regardless, it’s a foul ball. Still 2 strikes on the Panda. Boggs kicks and deals a ball in the dirt, easy take, 2-2. Panda steps out and adjusts himself as a new baseball is tossed to Boggs. Ball 3 is an easy take outside to bring the count full. Panda being patient here, not like him. He digs in, waiting on Boggs. Wanting this at bat to end Boggs just throws 95 up and in over Sandoval’s hands but the Kung Fu Panda is too quick for that and won’t have it. Panda hacks at it like he’s been taking lumberjack lessons from Bumgarner and sneaks it around the foul pole and over the right field fence for a home run! Two homers in two games for the big fella. A great 7 pitch at bat from a guy who’s not known to take a lot of pitches. In this NLCS Panda batted .310 with 2 HR, and 6 RBI. He was on fire just in time to face Justin Verlander 5 days later. But the Giants would have to win 2 more games to do that and now they were coming home to AT&T Park.

Other Notable

I would like to note that as I was leaving work before Game 5 started, one of my coworkers was laughing and sarcastically said, “Good luck with Zito tonight!”. Without breaking stride I turned and said, “Zito’s gonna go out and throw the best game of his life tonight.” I felt bad calling it out loud because I’m superstitious like that, but it was the prediction of the year.

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Next Blog: 2012 NLCS Game 7 – January 24, 2020