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Giants-Mariners Preview

May 24, 2009 - 6:29 AM By ANTHONY GIORNALISTA STATS Senior Writer

San Francisco (19-22) at Seattle (20-23), 4:10 p.m. EDT

Barry Zito's poor record is no longer due to ineffective pitching. The blame now falls squarely on the San Francisco Giants' lowly lineup.

The Giants, who failed to take advantage of Zito's first complete game in six years, look to build on their best performances at the plate in a week as they face the Seattle Mariners in the finale of a three-game interleague series Sunday.

Though he's finally living up the $126 million contract he signed with San Francisco (20-22) in January 2007, Zito (1-4, 3.62 ERA) doesn't have many wins to show for it. He's gotten a major league-worst 1.25 runs per game.

Zito's first complete game since 2003 was spoiled by two San Diego home runs in a 2-1 Giants loss Tuesday night. The left-hander, who won the 2002 AL Cy Young Award with Oakland, held the Padres to five hits while walking four and striking out three, but San Francisco went 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position.

It was Zito's 10th career complete game and first since Aug. 7, 2003, with Oakland at Detroit. He's 1-2 over his last six starts despite posting a 2.21 ERA during that span.

"I'm not really going for stats," said Zito, who had a career-worst 17 losses last year. "Tried that, it didn't work too well."

Zito is 12-2 with a 3.62 ERA in 23 starts against the Mariners (20-24), who failed to shut down one of the major league's weakest lineups Saturday night. San Francisco, ranked 29th in the majors with 160 runs, beat Seattle 5-1.

The Giants scored a combined five runs in losing their previous four.

Juan Uribe had the biggest hit of the game for San Francisco, connecting for a two-out bases clearing double in a five-run eighth inning. The veteran utilityman ended the Giants' 3-for-35 slump with runners in scoring position.

"They were pressing and once he got that hit, you saw different at-bats after that," San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. "I thought it would take a hit to get the guys to relax a little bit. We certainly needed it."

However, San Francisco's Pablo Sandoval, who has been a bright spot in his first full season as a starter, left in the eighth inning with a sore right elbow and won't play Sunday. Bochy originally planned for Sandoval to catch this series' finale.

Sandoval is batting .304 with three home runs and 17 RBIs.

Bengie Molina will likely have to catch after starting behind the plate Saturday. Bochy will also need a replacement for Sandoval in the No. 3 spot in the lineup as San Francisco faces Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez (4-3, 4.13).

Hernandez has lost three of his last four starts, giving up six runs in each of the defeats - including his last outing. He was reached for a season-high 11 hits in 5 2-3 innings as Seattle lost 6-5 to the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night.

Fernandez won his only start against the Giants, surrendering four runs and six hits in six innings as the Mariners won 5-4 on June 16, 2006.

Like Zito, Fernandez may have trouble getting many runs to work with. Seattle has managed to win two of its last four games despite scoring a combined four runs over that stretch.