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Zito, Giants look to play spoiler against Padres

Sep 14, 2007 - 2:33 PM San Francisco (66-80) at San Diego (78-67), 10:05 pm EDT

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Barry Zito is finally starting to resemble the pitcher the San Francisco Giants thought they were getting when they signed him to a huge contract this offseason.

Zito (9-12, 4.46 ERA) takes the mound on Friday as the Giants try and play spoiler against their National League West rival San Diego Padres in the opener of a three-game series.

The veteran lefthander, who has allowed two runs or less in each of his past four starts, will aim to help the Giants snap a five-game losing streak to the Padres. Despite pitching well, Zito is winless in his last four starts.

Zito will face a San Diego team that holds a slim 1 1/2 game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers (76-69) and the Philadelphia Phillies (77-69) in the wild card race. The Padres trail the Arizona Diamondbacks by four games in the NL West.

Chris Young (9-7, 2.72) gets the ball for San Diego, which dropped two of three games to Los Angeles earlier this week.

Young has not been the same since returning from a back injury on August 30. The 6-10 righthander has lost his last three starts and has an 8.78 ERA in that span. Young led the majors with a 2.12 ERA before suffering the injury.

Barry Bonds has hit 87 of his 762 home runs against San Diego which is the most he has against any team. Bonds will likely be in the lineup after sitting out Wednesday's 9-4 loss to Arizona.