Zito foils Tribe for Giants, 4-1

He allowed one run and four hits in 6 2‚Ñ3 innings for his first interleague win.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Barry Zito finally got an interleague win for San Francisco, pitching the Giants to a 4-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians Wednesday night.

Zito (3-11) allowed one run and four hits in 62‚Ñ3 innings, striking out four without a walk in his best start of the season. He bounced back from one of the shortest outings of his career last Wednesday when he lasted only two innings in a 7-2 loss to Detroit.

The left-hander came in 0-6 with a 9.32 ERA in interleague play since signing with the Giants before the 2007 season. He had gone 0-8 since his previous interleague win, June 16, 2006, against the Los Angeles Dodgers when he was with Oakland.

Jose Castillo had three hits, including a homer, for the Giants, who improved to 4-10 in interleague action, the same record Cleveland has against NL clubs this season.

Zito left after yielding a two-out double to Kelly Shoppach in the seventh.

Pinch-hitter Shin-Soo Choo greeted reliever Keiichi Yabu with a single, scoring Shoppach to bring the Indians to 3-1.

John Bowker hit his eighth homer in the eighth off Rafael Betancourt to make it 4-1.

Brian Wilson pitched the ninth for his NL-leading 21st save in 23 chances and 12th in a row.

Aaron Rowand put the Giants ahead 2-0 with a two-run single off left-hander Jeremy Sowers (0-3) in the first inning. Castillo and Randy Winn both singled with one out and Bengie Molina walked to load the bases.

Rowand, hitting .380 against lefties, lined a 2-2 pitch to left-center, scoring Castillo and Winn. Sowers got out of further trouble by getting Rich Aurilia to hit into a double play.

Castillo hit his sixth homer with one out in the third to make it 3-0.

Zito improved to 6-3 in his career against the Indians, facing them for the first time since a 7-6 win on May 6, 2006, when he was with the Athletics.

Sowers gave up three runs, nine hits and five walks over seven innings, striking out three.

Cleveland’s Casey Blake started at third base, but moved to shortstop for the first time in his career in the eighth inning.

The Indians have never beaten the Giants in Cleveland. They are 0-2 in this series and were 0-2 in losing the 1954 World Series in four straight.

The crowd of 25,654 pushed Cleveland’s home attendance past 1 million for the season.