Barry Zito gave up 15 hits and seven runs to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Tuesday night in another mystifying performance for the reigning Cy Young award winner.

In Zito’s last three starts he has surrendered thirty five hits.

How come?

Zito has given up a number of cheap hits, but that doesn’t account for his problem. His fastball location does. Zito hits about 88 MPH on his heater, not a lot by major league standards. Consequently, when he puts it over the plate he gets hit. Zito has not been able to throw the fastball without getting creamed.

Zito lacks command of his pitches right now, his curve ball is still superb, but major league hitters can eventually sit on a pitch if they know that is the only one you can throw when the going gets tough.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with Zito other than his being human. With all the hits he has given up, he still has pitched 126 innings and been tagged for only 111 hits, pretty good.

More importantly, he has to figure out a way not to let big league hitters foul off so many of his pitches, so he can still be in the game in the eighth inning, he needs to keep his pitch total down.

The Yankees lost Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter for a couple of games at least, when both were hit by Pedro Martinez fastballs on the hand in Monday’s game.

Martinez pitches up and in, these hitters dive over the plate, the collisions are inevitable. That’s baseball, when Martinez is on the hill, you don’t dive across the plate, Don Drysdale did the same thing to batters, so did Bob Gibson and they are in the Hall of Fame.

Click below for more.Lefties can slow the Yankees down. Exhibit one: Cleveland’s Billy Traber. Believe it or not, but traber stopped Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui, and Ruben Sierra plus he turned Jorge Posada around and voila a one hitter. It bears watching to see who will step up for the Yankees when a lefty pitches. Bernie Williams should be back soon and that will help.

The Yankees face lefty CC Sabathia today so lets see if he can shut the Yankees lefties down and duplicate Traber’s performance today.

Kansas City has a lineup that features hitters stroking the ball in the .275 range. More importantly, the Royals have a decent bullpen right now and two very cooperative foes in the reeling Twins and the White Sox.

Darrel May pitched two outstanding games against the A’s earlier this year only to lose certain wins after ninth inning homers by Erubial Durazo and Eric Byrnes.

The Angels are hurting physically once again. Tim Salmon has kidney stones, David Eckstein whiplash, and Troy Glaus who knows what.

Scott Shields should be given a chance to start. The five inning experiment with Aaron Sele and the inconsistency of Kevin Appier will weigh down their bullpen in the second half.

The big question around Anaheim is did Jarrod Washburn have a career year in 2002 or will he regain his dominating form?

Even though Tony Mounce didn’t have it last night the Rangers won again in Arlington. After holding their own against the A’s and Seattle at home it is obvious that any team coming into Texas this summer will be fortunate to win a series.

The Rangers lost Kevin Mench (.320) with a broken wrist last night. Some players are injury prone and it looks like Mench is heading down that path.

The Cubs woes can be traced to two areas. One, the disappearance of Mike Remlinger in the late innings, he can’t get anybody out, and two the fact that Trenidad Hubbard has been recalled from Iowa to take the injured Corey Patterson’s place.

The Chicago bullpen is killing them right now and you have to think Antonio Alfonseca will have a new home shortly.

The Marlins are closing the gap in the wild card race each week. This morning they are 4 in back of Arizona with number five starter Carl Pavano matched up against Kerry Wood in Wrigley today. I wouldn’t put anything past the Marlins in today’s game if they can make it a game of relievers after the seventh inning.

Kirk Reuter seems destined for the DL, meaning the Giants will have to intensify their search for a veteran arm. Jesse Foppert hasn’t pitched a good game for awhile and today must try to do so in Coors Field, not easy.

Say what you want about Nefi Perez and his prior attitude problems, but he is playing his ass off for the Giants and should be their everyday shortstop.

If I was the A’s management I would stop thinking about signing Scott Hatteberg long term and instead see if JT Snow would come across the Bay. Snow would fit as an ideal number two hitter for Oakland and settle down the A’s new shortstop in 2004, Bobby Crosby, next season.

It looks like someone has talked to Durazo who slugged the ball early in the count last night.

It is time for Bartolo Colon to win for the White Sox. The power pitcher throws well, but hasn’t seen the win column often enough. The Tigers can pitch, the Sox disappear at the plate from time to time, but Colon against Jeremy Bonderman should be what the doctor ordered tonight.

Good move dropping Johnny Damon to eighth in the order. If Boston could get another decent centerfielder they would be better off trading Damon for a pitcher. The rest of the lineup could take up the slack quite easily.

Are the Phillies bats coming alive? I’ll believe it when I see them hit the ball for at least one week.

Wouldn’t kris Benson help all the teams looking for pitching. I would trade him if I was Pittsburgh before moving Brian Giles.

When Kevin Brown makes it official that his injuries will keep him from participating in the all star game, then Dontrelle Willis will be added.

San Diego gets another test against Arizona tonight. Jake Peavy didn’t have it last week against the Giants, the Diamondbacks won’t be much easier for the young righty.

Arizona counters with Miguel Batista tonight. Curt Schilling should be back Friday night against the Giants and Jason Schmidt. Now, that’s a game.

Carl Crawford is a good story. The Devil Ray youngster’s neighborhood in Houston was so bad it has been described as making the other side of the tracks seem like Beverly Hills.

Jeremy Affeldt can take a big step to the head of the KC rotation when he faces Anaheim tonight. The lefties blister problems have held him back for two years now.

The Braves got well quickly in NY against the Mets. Russ Ortiz against Tom Glavine today. The Braves blasted Glavine first time they saw him.

The A’s are two back of Boston in the wild card race. No time to panic, but these home game losses will be felt when the A’s go on the road in August.

Ted Lilly tries to pick up the A’s today against just off the DL Joe Kennedy.

If the A’s turn this one into a battle of bullpens, watch out because Tampa Bay is a very loose team, they hit and run, swing early in the count, start runners, and do all the things that can turn a game around if they work.

Should be a good one to watch in the warmth of a beautiful summer afternoon at the park.