San Francisco Giants: Barry Zito's Strong Return Doesn't Change His Status

The second game of the day-night doubleheader for the Giants featured Barry Zito's return to the mound.

Oh, no.

But his much anticipated and feared return started a bit rough and got better as the night went along. In fact many Giants fans would probably say they were pleasantly surprised he wasn't ousted by the third inning.

Zito got stronger as the night went on.

In four of his seven innings, he faced the minimum three batters. He did not allow a baserunner past second base after the third inning.

After falling behind batters in the first three innings, Zito regained control of his fastball, curveball and changeup.

In the first two innings, Zito's fastball topped out at 84 mph but loosened up to get it to 87 by the third.

The changeup was his best weapon Tuesday night as he was able to place it where he wanted it when he wanted it, mostly placing it at the knees away from right-handed hitters.

This control was evident as he kept hitters off balance by only allowing four hits while walking two.

His only "mistake" of the night was a knee-high curveball that was hit over the left-center field fence by Lou Montanez.

So to say this start for Zito was big would be an understatement.

It was huge.

It proved Zito could still be a serviceable pitcher with the Giants and is taking his experience pitching with San Jose and Fresno to heart.

While in Fresno he simplified things, which had been a problem for the 11-year veteran since coming to San Francisco.

Part of that simplification was limiting himself to throwing three pitches: fastball, curveball and changeup.

Could it be the Barry Zito from Oakland has finally shown up? Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

[FARMER: Did Jonathan Sanchez make his last start as a Giant?]

This is only the beginning for Zito.

These type of performances will have to continue if he hopes to keep his job when Jonathan Sanchez returns.

It was Zito's first start since April 16 and his first outing of six or more innings with two or fewer runs since September 19, 2010.

His last outing of seven innings was on August 6, 2010 at Atlanta.

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Zack Farmer is a freelance reporter who has written for the San Francisco Examiner, Patch.com, Bay Area News Group and CSNBayArea.com.