"Nobody will know how Barry Zito would have handled the pressure of the 2010 postseason, but we can assess how he responded on the mound to a devastating newspaper column questioning his future with the team. Pretty darn well, it turned out. Zito allowed one run in three innings against the Dodgers on Friday night, walking one, striking out two and getting Ivan DeJesus Jr. to ground a curveball into a double play to defuse a bases-loaded, no-out jam. That was a mile better than his first start Monday, when he faced 13 batters and walked five. Two days later, The Chronicle reported the Giants were getting fed up with Zito and considering a buyout of his contract, a story that management declared untrue. Zito said he did not want to take the article to the mound against the Dodgers, but how could he not? "I definitely have something to prove," he said. "There's been some talk around camp. I don't know how much of it is based in truth. At the end of the day, this is the major leagues. I've got to prove myself every year. The past is the past. I've proven in the past I have the stuff inside of me. I just have to take it onto the field."" Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/04/SPL01I4D58.DTL
