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Zito battles through six innings to beat Phils

Jun 4, 2007 - 11:12 PM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Barry Zito worked his way out of trouble better than Jon Lieber.

Zito battled through six innings and Ryan Klesko launched a three-run homer as the San Francisco Giants posted an 8-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday.

In winning his third straight start, Zito (6-5) showed some of the toughness that made him a Cy Young Award winner with Oakland in 2002.

"He's always been that kind of pitcher," Giants catcher Bengie Molina said. "No matter what, he's always making good pitches when he needs to. That's the Barry I know."

Zito worked his way in and out of jams for much of the afternoon and wound up allowing just an unearned run and six hits. The lefthander walked four, struck out five and departed after throwing 112 pitches.

"(My) fastball in was good," Zito said. "Guys kept pulling them foul. That's a key. Let them swing at it. They're not gonna keep it fair. (I) broke a couple of bats, things like that. More than anything though, I got some key ground balls and some great defense when we needed it."

In the first, third, fifth and sixth innings, the Phillies put their first two runners on. However, they managed very little against Zito, who was having trouble locating pitches.

"I wasn't as aggressive in the first part of some of those innings," Zito said. "And then got myself into some trouble. I just had to get more aggressive."

Zito's best work may have come in the third when he worked through the heart of the Philadelphia order by striking out Chase Utley and slugger Ryan Howard before getting Wes Helms to fly out to shallow center field.

"I thought that was big," Zito said. "Trying to pitch out of some pressure with some of the best hitters in baseball, both just major threats at the plate. It was big to get out of that jam."

Lieber matched Zito for the first four innings before the Giants reached him for five runs in the fifth.

With runners on the corners and one out, Lieber induced a hard grounder from rookie Fred Lewis. Howard fielded the ball at first base and threw to the plate, where Kevin Frandsen was tagged out by catcher Rod Barajas.

But Klesko made sure Lieber would not escape the jam as he sent the first pitch he saw from the veteran righthander off the facing of the upper deck in right field for his second homer of the season, giving the Giants a 3-0 lead.

"I just got a good pitch to hit," Klesko said. "In this park, you want to try to get on a good pitch as quick as you can. Sometimes, (Lieber) quick pitches you a little bit. He's one of those guys that can keep you off-balance."

The Giants added to their lead in the inning. Barry Bonds drew a walk and, after Ray Durham doubled, Molina was walked intentionally. Pedro Feliz and Frandsen then delivered run-scoring singles to make it 5-0.

The bottom half of the order - Durham, Molina, Feliz and Fransen - combined for 10 of San Francisco's 15 hits. Molina, Frandsen and Randy Winn led the way with three hits each.

"Anything that we can do is added gravy," Frandsen said. "My job in the eight-hole, especially with two outs, is try to get the pitcher up, so he doesn't have to lead off an inning.

"The better at-bats we have down there, the better it is for the top of our lineup."

In the bottom of the inning, the Phillies again threatened against Zito. But after loading the bases with none out, they only managed one run, which came on an RBI groundout by Jayson Werth.

"(Zito) pitched well in traffic," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He had to, because he had traffic out there all day and made the pitches when we needed him to. Great job of getting out of some tight jams."

The Phillies left 12 runners on overall.

"We had a chance to score early," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "We couldn't knock nobody in."

Lieber (2-3) was roughed up for five runs and 10 hits in five innings. The veteran righthander walked three and struck out two.

Frandsen added an RBI single in the seventh and Durham hit a two-run homer in the eighth for the Giants, who gained a split of the four-game series.