Zito Sharp, Drops Mets, 3-0
by: Michael Avallone | Staff Columnist - NY Sports Day | Thursday, May 31, 2007

There would be no late-inning comeback.

No game-tying balk.

No game-winning home run.

Instead, there was an opposing pitcher stifling one of the league’s top offenses.

Barry Zito fired seven shutout innings and Pedro Feliz drove in all three runs for the Giants, who became the first team to blank the Mets this season, 3-0 in front of more than 41,000 fans on Wednesday night at Shea Stadium.

Brooklyn-born Rich Aurilia collected four hits for San Francisco, who snapped their four-game slide while putting an end to New York’s four-game winning streak.

As in Tuesday’s game, the Giants opened the scoring in the first with a pair of runs off Tom Glavine, who was denied career win No. 296 for the second time.

After retiring the first two batters of the game, the veteran southpaw surrendered back-to-back singles to Aurilia (4-for-4, 2B) and Barry Bonds before walking Bengie Molina. Feliz fell behind 1-2 in the count but worked it back full before grounding a two-run single past a diving Jose Reyes.

Feliz (2-for-4, 3B, 3RBI) was at it again in the third, delivering a two-out triple to score Molina for a 3-0 lead.

The margin was more than enough for Zito, who was only threatened twice in his seven innings of work. The left-hander surrendered consecutive singles to David Wright and Paul Lo Duca to start the second but retired the next three batters to keep the Mets off the board.

In the sixth, Lo Duca (2-for-4, 2B) collected the 1,000th hit of his career with a leadoff double, but Damion Easley, Carlos Gomez and pinch-hitter Julio Franco went down in succession to end the inning.

Zito (5-5) scattered six hits and struck out seven with one walk while throwing a season-high 122 pitches. After allowing a combined 13 runs in successive starts, the southpaw has surrendered just one run over his last two outings, spanning 14 innings (0.64 ERA).

Falling behind early was Glavine’s biggest problem; though like Oliver Perez the previous night, he would settle down to give New York seven solid innings. The 41-year-old tossed a season-high 122 pitches and allowed three runs on nine hits. He walked two and struck out four.

Glavine (5-3) lost consecutive starts for the first time since last August, despite having surrendered just five runs over 13 innings (3.46 ERA). His offense has scored a total of one run for him in that span.

Barry Bonds remains nine home runs shy of Hank Aaron after finishing 1-for-3.

Guillermo Mota returned from his 50-game suspension for using a performance enhancing substance and tossed two scoreless innings in his debut.

With much of the lineup struggling offensively, the Mets (33-18) will look to take the season-series from San Francisco as they play the rubber-game on Thursday night. Orlando Hernandez (2-1, 2.13) will take the hill in his second start since coming off the disabled list last Friday. The Cuban-born hurler returned with a bang against the Marlins, tossing six scoreless frames to run his scoreless streak to 19 1/3 consecutive innings. ‘El Duque’ faced San Francisco one last season and took the loss, allowing five runs over six innings in his only career appearance against them.

The Giants (25-26) will take the field on Thursday trying to win a series from the Mets at Shea for the second straight year. Matt Cain (2-4, 3.23) makes his 11th start of the season and hopes for a little more offensive support. San Francisco has totaled just 12 runs in the right-hander’s four losses and despite carving out a 2.84 ERA over his last three outings, he has just one win to show for it (1-1). Cain suffered a 4-1 defeat to the Mets back on May 7, allowing four runs and 10 hits over seven innings of work.