Barry Zito takes the mound tonight, hoping to begin a Giants winning streak and break his own losing streak. Zito has dropped three straight and only has one win in eight starts. He did play well against the Dodgers in his last start against them however, giving up two runs over 7 1/3 innings, but still gave up the loss.
The pitcher opposite him was Chad Billingsley, who stands opposite him Saturday much like last time. Billingsley pitches well against the Giants, both of his career shutouts have come against the team who invests so much in trying to 'Beat LA'.
Billingsley is 9-5 for a 4.00 ERA this year and is 5-2 with a 3.22 ERA against the Giants all-time. He's pitching on three-days of rest for the first time in his career. Clayton Kershaw is serving a five game suspension for intentionally hitting Aaron Rowand in a game last week.
"There's always a little concern because we don't do [short rest] much," LA pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said on his team's website. "I think we only did it with Derek Lowe before. You never really know. But the way he's throwing and his last outing, we're using his judgment."
On Friday night, the Dodgers threatened with a late rally to come within one point of the Giants as all-star closer Brian Wilson was out with a sore back. Zito (8-6, 3.49 ERA) will try and make sure they don't sniff a comeback, hoping for run support from Aubrey Huff, who had three hits, a homerun and three RBI on Friday.
The quest to tie up the series against LA continues, as the Dodgers have taken six of ten.