HOW ABOUT THIS GUY ??
For five years Barry Zito has been a punching bag, a veritable pinata for San Francisco Giants fans.
He was the poster boy for bad baseball contracts. Last night, he took all of that angst, all of that
frustration from years of criticism and perceived under-achieving and shoved it down everyone's
throats.
Zito was magnificent in pitching the Giants back into the National League Championship Series
with the St. Louis Cardinals. Zito dazzled with a fastball that topped out at 85 miles per hour as
he kept the Cards off balance with a plethora of well-located fast-balls, dancing curveballs and
an occasional change, just for posterity's sake.
The Giants would give Zito more than enough runs with a 4-run outburst in the 4th inning. The big
hit coming off of the bat of Brandon Crawford grounding a bases loaded single into center.
Pablo Sandoval would add his second home run in as many days in the 8th to put the cherry on top.
Zito was rather stoic in post-game interviews as he talked about how great it was to pitch well on
the big stage. His best quote of the night came when asked if he had noticed the support he was
receiving on Twitter with the #RallyZito hashtag that was trending world-wide through-out the day,
Zito responded, "well I tried Twitter a few years ago, it was a pretty devastating experience."
The quote was classic Zito and was the only veiled mention he gave to being public enemy
number one in San Francisco for so long.
For Zito it has to feel "Oh So Sweet," coming through on the big stage with his team and an entire
fan base relying on him. And, with the spot-light shining its brightest he came up with a truly epic
performance.
Game 6 is Sunday in San Francisco with Ryan Vogelsong going for the Giants and Chris Carpenter
pitching for the Cardinals. Game time is 5:15 and our pre-game on 101.7 FM and AM 1340 will
come your way at 4:45pm
