DODGERS NOTEBOOK: GONZALEZ HAS ZITO'S NUMBER.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Zito is a former Cy Young Award winner, a three-time All-Star and a guy the San Francisco Giants deemed last winter to be worthy of a seven-year, $126 million contract.

For his part, though, Luis Gonzalez is unimpressed.

The Dodgers left fielder took Zito over the wall in the first inning, just to the left of the 421-foot sign in right-center field, to provide the decisive blow in the Dodgers' 6-2 victory over the Giants on Saturday. Gonzalez went 1 for 3 off Zito for the game and is now hitting .467 lifetime (7for15) against him, with two homers and six RBIs.

Zito, a lefty, entered the day holding left-handed hitters to a .248 average and four home runs for the season. Gonzalez, a left-handed hitter, is batting .305 against lefties this year, compared with just .272 against right-handers.

"There are just certain guys you face where you see the ball well or feel comfortable up there," Gonzalez said. "For me, he is one of those guys. I don't think you can figure out (why). I just know he is a guy I have hit well in the past."

The home run was Gonzalez's 13th of the season.

"The first couple of hitters, (Zito) was struggling to try to get his breaking ball over," Gonzalez said. "He threw me one on a 2-1 count to make it 3-1, so knowing he just didn't have his good curveball, I was sitting dead-red fastball on the next pitch. It was in a left-handed guy's happy zone, and I was able to elevate it."

Gonzalez is hitting a respectable .280 overall, with 23 doubles and 60 RBIs.

But the dual emergences of Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp have rendered Gonzalez a part-time player, and probably a lame duck as well. He turned 40 last week, and there appears to be little chance the Dodgers will re-sign him after getting him for one year and $7.35 million, even if it is clear he can still play and provide a valuable, veteran presence in the clubhouse.

Bouncing back: Reliever Jonathan Broxton wasted no time recovering from his two previous outings. He gave up what would have been a three-run, winning homer to Chicago's Alfonso Soriano in the seventh inning Thursday, but the Dodgers rallied in the ninth. Broxton then allowed a walk-off solo shot to the Giants' Daniel Ortmeier on Friday night.

But this time, with the Dodgers nursing a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth, Broxton retired Kevin Frandsen on a comebacker, struck out Barry Bonds, then got Rajai Davis to also bounce back to the mound.

"I'm not one bit surprised by that," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "I don't think (Broxton) was either. He was good, and our entire bullpen was good."

Takashi Saito pitched a scoreless ninth, but the three runs the Dodgers scored in the top of that inning to take a 6-2 lead eliminated Saito's chance to record his 38th save.

Also: Juan Pierre went 1for5, beating out a dribbler in the first inning, to extend his current hitting streak to 10 games. Pierre now has hit safely in 25 of his past 26 games. In his only hitless game during that stretch, he was credited with a fielder's choice when Washington shortstop Felipe Lopez botched a force at second on a ball Pierre might have beaten if Lopez had thrown to first. ... Rafael Furcal is hitless in his past 17 at-bats, but he did execute a perfect squeeze play in the ninth inning to drive in the Dodgers' final run. ... Ramon Martinez had an RBI single in the ninth and still has more RBIs (28) than hits (25) for the season.