• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Haren sizzles, Zito fizzles as A's rip Giants

Jun 10, 2007 - 1:18 AM SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- The Oakland Athletics were not happy to watch Barry Zito leave but they have welcomed seeing their former ace again.

The A's roughed up Zito for the second time this season en route to a 6-0 rout of the San Francisco Giants on Saturday.

Dan Haren (7-2) pitched seven strong innings as Oakland beat its Bay Area rival for the second time in as many days and won for the seventh time in eight games.

"Two number ones going at it, it was a great effort by Dan Haren. He's just been so consistent, it's been fun to watch," Athletics manager Bob Geren said. "Barry Zito, we had some tough battles at the plate and we kind of got his pitch count up and got him out of the game but he looked sharp and looked pretty good really so we were fortunate for us to get some hits and some runs and win that game today."

Making his case that he should be starting baseball's All-Star Game in July at AT&T Park, Haren won his seventh straight game, scatting five hits while striking out six to lower his major league-leading ERA to 1.58. He has not allowed more than seven hits in a start this season.

"The All-Star break is coming up and that's almost the halfway point there so I try to take it in bunches and I try to go one start at a time and try to pitch every week and then every month and once I get to the halfway point maybe sit back and reflect a little," Haren said. "I try to break it down and it's such a long season and a lot of times it could be a roller coaster so I'm just trying to not to lose my edge."

Zito (6-6), who left the A's as a free agent in the offseason and signed a seven-year, $126 million with the Giants, has been treated like a journeyman by Oakland's lineup.

The lefthander, who won the American League Cy Young Award in 2002, lasted just four innings, allowing four runs - three earned - and nine hits. He walked one and struck out two.

"It was kind of strange. There were a lot of foul balls. Lot of seeing-eye hits," Zito said. "I ran the pitch count up. I was kind of battling. Hits would find holes. Guys got on base, weird things happened. Too many pitches. I pitched myself out of the game. They had good at-bats, battled, fouled off a lot of balls."

On May 18, in his first start against the A's at Oakland, Zito was shelled for seven runs on six hits in four innings. Zito also allowed seven walks in a 15-3 rout by the Athletics.

"I guess in a sense (I did better) but I'm certainly not satisfied," Zito said. "I pitched myself out of the game with all those pitches. I've got to execute and come into the zone a little more."

This time, Zito threw 106 pitches and had a three-game winning streak snapped. He had fashioned a 0.45 ERA and a .216 opponents' average during that span.

"He threw strikes and they did foul off some good pitches," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Zito. "Put the ball in play, good things can happen sometimes when you do that - it did today. He just got his pitch count up too high there. That's a lot of pitches in that amount of innings.

"When you are going against one of the hottest pitchers, you gotta keep it close and we let the game get out of hand."

Bobby Crosby had three hits, including a home run, and scored twice while Travis Buck and Mark Kotsay added three hits apiece for Oakland, which had 16 hits in the contest.

"We'll take wins however we can get them," Crosby said. "The fans love this rivalry here but we take it as just another game and another team and any wins we can get we'll take it.

"Today was a little bit better. I'm constantly working on things and trying to feel loose and comfortable and today I had a good day and felt better than I've had the past couple of days."

The A's chased Zito in a three-run fifth. Eric Chavez led off the frame with a triple and scored on a ground ball by Dan Johnson that Giants second baseman Ray Durham booted for an error. Bochy summoned his bullpen but that provided no relief.

Against reliever Vinnie Chulk, Crosby bunted for a single to put runners at the corners. Jason Kendall hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Johnson.

Mark Ellis capped off the scoring in the eighth inning with a solo homer off Jonathan Sanchez, bringing many A's fans to their feet in the opponent's ballpark.

Barry Bonds had two hits but the slugger has only one home run in his last 70 at-bats. Bond had a chance to make it a game in the eighth, but he struck out against Ron Flores with two on and two out as the Giants fell for the sixth time in their last eight games.

"I will see where he's at," Bochy said. "I don't want to get him to the point where we have to give him two or three days off. He played well today. He tried to get us going, a couple of hits. We just couldn't figure Haren out. The story today is how well he pitched."

Haren allowed two of his three hits in the second. After Bonds singled, catcher Bengie Molina's hit put two runners on base with only one out but Pedro Feliz struck out and Omar Vizquel grounded into a force out to end the inning.

In the fourth, San Francisco had a runner at second after Bonds singled and stole his 513th career base but Durham struck out and Molina flied out.