It was interesting to see that when Oakland faced old friend Barry Zito last Friday, the Athletics stacked their lineup with left-handed hitters -- their 3-4-5 batters were lefties Eric Chavez, Dan Johnson and Jack Cust, and Travis Buck batted eighth. Did the Athletics have some special insight into Zito, after watching him pitch in green and gold for all those years?
Well, Zito struggled horribly against the lefties, who went 3-for-4 with five walks. Going into his start against Houston last night, lefties were hitting .309 with a .491 slugging percentage against Zito; and righties were batting .218 with a .327 slugging average.