The Diamondbacks have faced two kinds of pitchers this -- righties and wrongies.
Arizona went 24-24 against left-handed starters last season, but it has had unexpected difficulty against them these days, a problem exacerbated in a 4-2 loss to San Francisco's Barry Zito on Monday afternoon.
Zito has two of his four victories against the D-backs, who have lost seven of the 10 times they have faced against lefties in May. They appeared to turn the corner with recent victories over the Dodgers' Ted Lilly and the Brewers' Randy Wolf, but they again had trouble against Zito, who held them to two runs in seven innings Monday. He beat the D-backs 7-3 on May 13.
The D-backs have lost to defending NL Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw this month, but they also have fallen to Chris Capuano and soft-tossers like Zito, Bruce Chen, Jamie Moyer and Johan Santana. They are 7-11 against lefties this year.
The key, manager Kirk Gibson said during the middle of the streak last week, is patience.
"They add and subtract (speeds) a lot," Gibson said. "What you have to tell yourself (is), you don't try to pull them. If you do, they have such good arm motion on their secondary pitches and such good location that you leave yourself exposed."
Many of those losses came when productive Chris Young was on the disabled list, and things could change now that Young has returned. He hit .285 against lefties last year and had two singles Monday, when Justin Upton doubled home a run and John McDonald hit a pinch-hit home run. Zito caught a break on Upton's double, which would also would have scored Willie Bloomquist from first base had it not bounced into the stands for a ground-rule double.
"They have been around as long as they have because they know how to pitch and they know how to change speeds and get guys out," Bloomquist said of some of the veteran lefties. "They live off deception. They feed off guys being overaggressive and thinking they are going to get a fastball, and they don't get it. They're pitching backwards a lot.
"They play with your mind, and that's what makes them good."
NOTES, QUOTES
--C Miguel Montero was 0 for 4 and struck out with the tying run on base for the second out in the ninth inning in a 4-2 loss to San Francisco on Monday, his first game since suffering a strained left groin May 21. It also was Montero's first appearance since he signed a five-year, $60 million contract extension Saturday.
--RHP Trevor Cahill, 3-0 with a 1.30 ERA in four career starts against San Francisco while with Oakland, has lost two starts against the Giants this year after joining the D-backs in the offseason. Cahill gave up four runs in six innings in Monday's loss after giving up four runs in 5 2/3 innings against them on May 12. Cahill was removed after walking Zito to open the seventh Monday, the fourth time he has worked into the seventh inning in 10 starts this season. "We have to get more innings out of our starters," manager Kirk Gibson said. Cahill got his first hit and scored his first run of the season, singling and scoring in the second inning to break an 0-for-17 drought.
--1B Paul Goldschmidt continued to swing a hot bat, extending his hitting streak to seven games with a double and a single in three at-bats. Goldschmidt is 13 for 35 (.371) with five doubles and a homer while hitting safely in eight of his last 10 games. He has 12 doubles, one behind team leader Jason Kubel.
--D-backs manager Kirk Gibson turned 55 Monday. Gibson homered on his birthday in his last season in the major leagues, with Detroit in 1995, during a streak in which he homered six times in six games at Tiger Stadium. He hit the last of his 284 major league homers on July 27, 1995, at Yankee Stadium.
BY THE NUMBERS: 2 -- Home runs in SS John McDonald's last four at-bats, after a pinch-hit homer off Zito on Monday. McDonald has three homers this season.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I just wanted to play in the big leagues. I thought about being a good teammate and a good clubhouse guy. That way, if I didn't make it to the big leagues, I'd at least be a coach or something like that." -- C Miguel Montero, after receiving a five-year, $60 million contract extension. He signed for $13,000 in 2001.
