Red Sox Embarrass Giants 12-1

When I heard Barry Zito would be starting for the Giants today (Chad Gaudin went on the 15-day DL Tuesday with carpal tunnel), I almost took off of work to go to the game. Today was going to be the day for for Zito to shine, right? His ERA at AT&T Park is a 3.71 this year and this was his opportunity to show all the doubters he should remain in the starting rotation, right? Sadly not.

Zito’s ERA has been increasing by the month and his career ERA now sits at 3.99. Today against the Red Sox he lasted 3.2 innings, allowing 7 hits, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HR. He threw 85 pitches – 50 of which were strikes. This chart shows how bad things have gotten for Zito in 2013. 

Jean Machi replaced Zito in the top of the 4th inning and Mike Kickham replaced Machi in the 5th. Things just got worse from here. At the top of the 6th inning, the ump even had to tell Kickham to tuck his shirt in.

Stephen Drew knocked in a three run homer off Kickham in the top of the 7th inning. Interesting stat: Kickham has allowed 7 HRs in 6 plate appearances with the Giants. The Red Sox scored one more run off Kickham in the 8th inning for a final score of 12-1.

The only positive from this game was Joaquin Arias hitting his first homerun of the season in the bottom of the second inning. I would love to see him get a little more playing time this fall. Arias had a .313 batting average August through October 2012 for the Giants.