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Zito pitches Giants past Braves

Aug 19, 2008 - 3:00 AM By Phil Foley PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Barry Zito helped the San Francisco Giants to their first series win in Atlanta in 22 tries.

Zito hurled seven shutout frames and Aaron Rowand homered and drove in two runs to lead the Giants to a 5-0 win over the bumbling Atlanta Braves in the finale of a four-game set on Monday afternoon.

Pablo Sandoval and Rich Aurilia drove in a run apiece for the Giants, who won a regular-season set in Atlanta for the first time since taking two of three at the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on May 28-30, 1993.

"That's huge, especially coming off the series loss in Houston," Zito said. "It's tough to win a four-game series. Hopefully, we can (build on it) and have a good homestand."

The Giants finished 5-2 against Atlanta this season.

"They played real well," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. "We played San Francisco seven times and got (Tim) Lincecum twice, (Matt) Cain twice and Zito. Those are the guys who beat us. They're good. They're tough. They played pretty well."

San Francisco has not scored a lot of runs for Zito (7-15), who was signed to a seven-year, $126 million contract last season to anchor the Giants' rotation. The club averaged 3.32 runs - third-worst in the National League - in the lefthander's 24 starts entering Monday.

The 30-year-old Zito didn't need much support against the anemic Braves. The former Cy Young Award winner rebounded from a poor start against the Dodgers, scattering five hits while walking one and striking out three to notch his first win since August 2 at San Diego.

"It was one of my better starts of the year," Zito said. "I was bearing down and stayed aggressive. My stuff's been good, my bullpens have been great. I really have a feeling for my pitches right now. I have to keep it going."

Zito threw 65 of his 109 pitches for strikes en route to improving to 12-1 with San Francisco and 97-5 overall when his teammates plate four or more runs.

"(Zito) was great," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He had all his pitches working today. He was on today. He had good command and mixed up his pitches."

San Francisco wasted no time giving Zito some much overdue run support in this one, sending eight men to the plate in a three-run first against Atlanta starter Jorge Campillo.

Dave Roberts led off the game with a triple before Campillo (7-6) hit Ivan Ochoa to put runners at the corners. One out later, Rowand plated Roberts with a sacrifice fly before San Francisco followed with consecutive two-out singles from Travis Ishikawa, Aurilia and Sandoval to give the Giants a 3-0 lead.

"That was good," Zito said of the early run support. "I try to stick to my (same) approach no matter what the score is. When there's three runs out there, it helps."

Campillo retired the next 14 batters before Rowand greeted the Mexican righthander with a 410-foot blast into the second section of seats in the left-center field bleachers to extend the Giants' bulge to 4-0.

Braves manager Bobby Cox thought that Campillo deserved a better fate.

"He really didn't get roughed up at all," Cox said. "This wasn't a good day for the offense."

Meanwhile, the misery continued for the Braves, who finished their seven-game tilt at Turner Field at 1-6.

Things could not get much worse for the Braves, who were outscored, 47-22, in the homestand. The club, which had one of the best home records in baseball in May, has won just seven of its last 28 games at Turner Field.

"I don't know what to say," said Atlanta's Chipper Jones of his club's recent slide. "Bad, bad baseball. Bad."

They did not help themselves in the field either.

In the first, left fielder Omar Infante lost track of the outs in left field while catching Rowand's sacrifice fly and did not muster a throw home.

Brian McCann and Jones gift-wrapped San Francisco's fifth run in the seventh. McCann threw to third base on ball four to Roberts, catching Jones off guard. The throw sailed into left field, allowing Emmanuel Burriss to score.

"Lots of mental mistakes," Jones said. "Forgetting outs, forgetting the count. It's a point of the season when you have to be focused and you have to have some pride out there and play.

"This is a team unlike any Bobby (Cox) has ever coached. This is a team that's young, struggling with its confidence. The only way to get that back is to play (fundamental) baseball."

Campillo allowed five runs and seven hits while walking one and striking out two for the Braves, who fell to 6-11 in August.