SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Zito couldn’t win. He could only lose.

Yet when he walked off the mound in the seventh inning of his 10th start, the usually raucous Saturday night crowd serenaded him with modest cheers.
Zito remained stuck at one victory — exactly where he was through 10 starts last season. The similarity to last year’s misery ends there, though, and the home fans seem to be aware of that.
Zito (1-6) couldn’t protect a one-run lead in the seventh, giving up three doubles over a four-batter span, and the St. Louis Cardinals padded it from there to take a 6-2 victory at AT&T Park that snapped the Giants’ four-game win streak.
Albert Pujols hit a pair of solo home runs, but the game hinged on the Cardinals’ two-run rally off Zito in the seventh.
Skip Schumaker threaded a slider inside the third base line and Chris Duncan pulled another inside the first base bag. Zito cursed himself and shook his head. The two hits erased an otherwise strong evening in which Zito mostly matched another former Cy Young winner at the top of his game.
Chris Carpenter allowed an earned run for the first time this season, but the Cardinals’ ace found the back door to a victory after Duncan’s double scored Schumaker with the tiebreaking run.
Zito said the 1-2 pitch to Duncan that might have been too good, but otherwise didn’t lament many location mistakes.
“The baseball gods weren’t in my favor tonight,” Zito said. “If I keep scrapping along, being aggressive and being in command, that’s what it’s all about. When you persevere and trust your approach, the game eventually will end up in your favor.
“I can’t focus on my record. I’ve got to focus on positive things.”
That’s easier for Zito now. Through 10 starts last year, he was mentally adrift with a 1-9 record and 5.65 ERA. Opponents were batting .315 against him.
This season, every measure shows vast improvement. He has thrown quality starts in six of his last nine games. He has a 4.02 ERA. Opponents are hitting a reasonable .253.
And his stuff is good enough to win again. He set a season high with six strikeouts, including a rainbow curve that Pujols watched in the sixth.
Along the way this season, Zito earned Bruce Bochy’s trust. Despite a pitch count of 108, the manager stuck with Zito after Schumaker’s double.
“I know I wouldn’t want to come out of a tie ballgame,” Bochy said. “Sure, I think he’s earned that. When he got to two outs, I said, ’You know what? This is his game.’ They got a base hit. What can you do?”
The Giants did little against Carpenter, but it was more than anyone else had managed this season.
Carpenter won the NL Cy Young award in 2005, missed most of the past two seasons because of arm issues and still isn’t 100 percent. He left an April 14 start after three innings and didn’t return for a month.
But when healthy enough to pitch, he has been close to perfect.
Carpenter (3-0) was coming off a start at Milwaukee in which he took a perfect game into the seventh inning. His ERA remained at 0.00 until the second inning, when Fred Lewis hit a one-out double and scored on Juan Uribe’s triple. The Giants added another run in the third when Randy Winn and Bengie Molina hit consecutive two-out doubles.
But Carpenter dispatched the last seven hitters he faced, and the Giants did nothing against the Cardinals bullpen.
Sergio Romo made his season debut after missing two months with a sprained elbow ligament and the excitable right-hander began with consecutive strikeouts of Yadier Molina and Rick Ankiel.
But Brian Barden singled and Romo wasn’t as effective out of the stretch. Joe Thurston tripled off the right field arcade and Schumaker followed with a single through the right side to give the Cardinals a 5-2 lead.