Has Barry Zito Earned His $126 Million Contract?
By zacklosel
# 1 – First Blood of 2012 / Strong Parallel’s in 2013
At the start of 2012, the Giants were looking to put a disappointing 2011 season behind them. Unfortunately, Opening Week / Weekend was anything but impressive, and San Francisco was swept in three games by Arizona.
May 3, 2012; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Barry Zito (75) in the dugout against the Miami Marlins during the first inning at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L. Cox
With the fan-base ready to go into meltdown mode, the club turned to the always cool-headed Barry Zito, who came in to Colorado on April 9th, and served up a gem of a game that would set the tone for the rest of his 2012 season. He pulverized the Rockies, pitching a complete game, four-hit shutout to beat Colorado 7-0, while issuing zero walks. He only struck out four, but since coming over to San Francisco, its been no secret that he hasn’t exactly been the most consistent strikeout machine.
Nevertheless, it was very impressive, and helped the club get things going from then on.
But what did Zito do just in this past week on April 10th? Oh, you know, only shutout the Rockies AGAIN, almost exactly a year to the date later; though he didn’t pitch a compete game this time, he went seven strong, and looked just as sharp as he did coming off of his impressive 2012 postseason. He even contributed to his cause by going 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored on the team’s way to a 10-0 shutout victory, which completed the Giant’s impressive three game sweep of Colorado.
Eerily similar feats, except this time, the Giants weren’t in desperate need of such an impressive outing.