(Best E Casino) - Playing at home hasn't helped the
San Francisco Giants achieve success so far this year. It sure hasn't been a fun place for Barry Zito to pitch.
Zito and his San Francisco teammates will attempt to end their season-long struggles at AT&T Park when the Giants wrap up a three-game interleague series with the Detroit Tigers this afternoon.
San Francisco fell to a major league-worst 14-23 at home following Tuesday's 5-1 loss to the Tigers, the Giants' sixth defeat in their last seven games at AT&T Park.
The stadium has been an even bigger house of horrors for Zito this season. The high-priced left-hander is 0-6 with an ugly 6.50 earned run average in his seven home starts, while having surrendered 25 walks and 47 hits over a combined 36 innings of work.
Zito actually hasn't been too sharp pitching on the road, either. The former American League Cy Young winner leads the majors with 10 losses this year and has produced a subpar 5.88 ERA through 14 overall starts.
The ex-Oakland Athletics standout's most recent setback came at the hands of his original team on Friday, when Zito allowed four runs to the A's over 5 2/3 innings in a 5-1 loss at AT&T Park.
Zito has had good success when facing Detroit over the course of an up-and- down career. In 14 lifetime regular season starts against the Tigers, the 30- year-old owns a 7-5 record with an excellent 2.68 ERA.
His last start in an Oakland uniform came versus Detroit in the 2006 AL Championship Series. It turned out to be a forgettable sendoff for Zito, who was rocked for five runs in 3 2/3 innings to suffer the loss in Game 1 of that series.
Zito will have to deal with one of the game's hottest hitters in Tigers outfielder Marcus Thames, who tied a franchise record by homering in his fifth straight game during Tuesday's triumph.
Thames led off the top of the ninth inning with a blast over the center-field wall, the right-handed slugger's seventh homer in his last seven games. He became the fifth Tiger player to go deep in five straight contests and first to do so since Willie Horton in 1969.
Ryan Raburn added a pinch-hit solo homer to back seven strong innings from Detroit starter Kenny Rogers as the Tigers registered their ninth victory in their last 11 tries.
Rogers (5-4) allowed just five hits and a run to win in his 27th different ballpark. Todd Jones escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the ninth to close out the contest.
San Francisco starter Jonathan Sanchez (6-4) surrendered six hits and three runs while fanning eight over seven-plus innings, but had a four-start winning streak snapped.
Bengie Molina had two hits and an RBI for the Giants, who ended a three-game slide with an 8-6 win in Monday's series opener.
The Tigers will send out impressive youngster Armando Galarraga in today's finale. The 26-year-old has stamped himself a contender for AL Rookie of the Year honors by compiling a 6-2 record and 3.31 ERA through 11 games (10 starts), and carries a three-start win streak into this afternoon's matchup.
The Venezuelan right-hander fired seven shutout innings to lead the Tigers to a 5-0 victory over the Dodgers on Friday. Galarraga held Los Angeles to a mere three hits in that game and is now limiting opposing hitters to a .173 average for the season.
Detroit is 8-2 in Galarraga's 10 starts so far in 2008.
The Giants are 5-3 all-time against the Tigers and swept a three-game series from Detroit at AT&T Park from June 6-8, 2003.