Monday's 8-1 decision over the Phillies exemplified the Giants' resilience. For the second time on this 10-game road trip, they responded to a crushing defeat on a walk-off homer with a convincing victory. Barry Zito paced this triumph, as he did the other one, with stingy pitching. The Giants complemented his performance with 15 hits, most notably Ryan Klesko's three-run, fifth-inning homer that broke a scoreless tie.

Yet, while the Giants have learned to forestall disaster, they typically don't sustain success. Since their eight-game winning streak April 18-26, they've won more than two games in a row only once. That's why they're 27-29 and virtually tied with Colorado for last place in the National League West.

"I can't believe where we are right now," catcher Bengie Molina said. "It's embarrassing for me, personally, and I hope it's the same for the guys."

Now is the best time for the Giants to break their pattern of steady mediocrity, interrupted by flurries of dominance. They open a three-game series Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who form the West's upper crust with Los Angeles and San Diego.

"Very, very, very important," was how Molina characterized the series.

"I just saw the standings," Zito said. "They're really weird -- three teams tied for first and two of us tied for last. It's important for us to make a statement."

Zito (6-5) is issuing a bold declaration to the skeptics who call him overrated, based on the seven-year, $126 million contract he received from the Giants in the offseason. He has won his last three starts, allowing one earned run in 20 innings for a 0.45 ERA over that span.

This wasn't like last Wednesday, when Zito worked seven shutout innings against the Mets -- one night after Carlos Delgado's 12th-inning homer sent Armando Benitez packing for Florida. Against the Mets, Zito encountered only occasional trouble, allowing four runners to reach scoring position.

This time, in helping the Giants rebound from Shane Victorino's tie-breaking homer in the ninth inning, Zito constantly fought through "traffic," as manager Bruce Bochy put it. The left-hander fashioned only one 1-2-3 inning, putting the first two runners on base in the first, third, fifth and sixth innings. Yet, Philadelphia went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position against Zito, who elevated his pitch count to escape each jam, thus explaining why he lasted only six innings.

"There was a lot of pressure every inning," Zito said. "I wasn't as aggressive, I think, in the first part of some of those innings."

Ultimately, Zito resumed the approach that has sustained him.

"Just mixing speeds, you know," he said. "Up, down, in, out, back and forth. That's always been my game."

Zito looked particularly impressive in the third inning, slipping a called third strike past Chase Utley before fanning Ryan Howard on an 86-mph fastball.

"I thought that was big, trying to pitch out of some pressure with some of the best hitters in baseball, both such major threats, at the plate," Zito said.

Zito also took a mildly unorthodox approach to quelling a first-inning threat. With the bases loaded and two outs, he grabbed Aaron Rowand's comebacker and threw home for a forceout instead of making a simple toss to first. Zito explained that throwing home was easier.

"It took me by surprise," Molina said. "I wasn't expecting it, but, hey, it was the third out."

With so much stress placed upon him by the Phillies, Zito spared himself the anxiety of feeling as if he had to restore the Giants' equilibrium.

"You don't want to feel like you have to be everything for everybody," he said. "You just want to do your job. I didn't try to take the burdens of the team or the previous game into my start."

Barry Bonds seems burdened by something, however. The left fielder remained at 746 career home runs, nine short of Hank Aaron's record, after an 0-for-4, two-strikeout afternoon. Bonds has one home run in his last 61 at-bats, and his shortcomings were obvious to Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, a former hitting coach.

"Right now, he's trying to hit home runs," Manuel said. "He's jumping out swinging real hard. He's trying to muscle the ball instead of nice and easy, catch it out front. Before, when he was hitting all those home runs, he had good balance and a good technique with a short, quick swing that's as pretty as you'll see."

Others compensated for Bonds. Klesko's home run off Phillies starter Jon Lieber (2-4) galvanized a five-run fifth. Kevin Frandsen, who started at shortstop after Omar Vizquel was scratched with a sinus infection, contributed a pair of RBI singles despite expending some pregame energy to catch Noah Lowry's between-starts bullpen session. Ray Durham concluded the scoring with a two-run homer in the eighth.

The Giants emerged with a split of the four-game series after losing six consecutive games at Citizens Bank Park from 2005-06.