The Twenty Loss Watch is back on.
Barry Zito lost his 16th game Friday. With one month remaining in the season, he still has a shot to become the first San Francisco pitcher to hit the big two-oh in losses. The way he pitched Friday in Cincinnati, it seems possible.
In an 11-7 loss, Zito gave up eight runs (seven earned) and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings. He was done after 80 pitches and gave up a third-inning grand slam to Edwin Encarnacion, plus he made an error on a bunt that led to an unearned run.
Zito's changeup was flat, he said, and the Reds' hitter-friendly ballpark is no place to throw a flat changeup.
The lefty had a nice little run before Friday, winning consecutive starts for the first time all season, the first at Atlanta and the second at home against the Padres.
But Zito was back on the losing trail on Friday. His 16 losses are the most in the majors, and every time he gets closer to 20, the topic of his $126 million contract surfaces.
That's a lot of money for a 20-game loser.
Even a 16-game loser.
REDS 11, GIANTS 7: The Giants had 13 hits to the Reds' 12 Friday and knocked out Cy Young candidate Edinson Volquez, who gave up six runs in 5 1/3 innings, probably his worst start of the year. But it wasn't enough because Barry Zito was worse than Volquez. Rich Aurilia hit a pinch homer for the Giants.
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