San Francisco (33-44) at Cleveland (35-42)

Barry Zito achieved plenty of success when he faced American League competition on a regular basis. That’s hardly been the case since joining the San Francisco Giants.

The struggling left-hander again looks for his first interleague victory as a member of the Giants as they continue their road series with the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night.

Zito (2-11, 6.32 ERA) has been a major disappointment since signing a lucrative deal with San Francisco (33-44) in 2007 after seven successful seasons across the Bay in Oakland. During his brief tenure with the Giants, he is 13-24 with a 5.02 ERA, and 0-6 with a 9.35 ERA against AL teams.

“When things don’t go your way you can’t get down,” Giants center fielder Aaron Rowand said. “You have to stay positive. Barry knows everybody (on this team) is behind him.”

In Zito’s shortest outing of the season, the 2002 Cy Young Award winner allowed five runs and five hits in two innings of a 7-2 home loss to Detroit on Wednesday for his second consecutive defeat.

“It feels terrible to let the team down. That’s the hard part,” said Zito, who is 1-3 with a 9.00 ERA in his last four starts. “These guys bust their butts.”

Facing the Indians (35-42) could help Zito snap out of his most recent funk. He is 5-3 with a 2.71 ERA in nine career starts against them and looks to help the Giants win consecutive games for the first time in two weeks after Tuesday’s 3-2 victory.

Former Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel laid down a suicide squeeze in the top of the ninth inning for what turned out to be the game-winning run and preserved the victory with a backhanded play in the hole in the bottom of the inning. The 41-year-old spent 11 seasons with the Indians and made his first trip back to Cleveland since the club chose not to pick up his option prior to the 2005 season.

“My mind was kind of going crazy,” said Vizquel, who is hitting .167 in just 33 games during a season where he’s had to recover from knee surgery. “I was excited, nervous all at the same time.”

Third baseman Jose Castillo went 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Giants, who have won just four of their last 13 and are 3-10 in interleague play. Castillo is 4-for-8 in his last two contests.

Looking to avoid a third straight loss, Cleveland hopes Jeremy Sowers (0-2, 6.57) can help the club bounce back as he makes his sixth start of the season.

Sowers allowed three earned runs and 10 hits in six innings of a 6-3 loss at Colorado on Thursday. The left-hander, who is 0-3 with a 7.71 in six interleague starts, will make his first appearance against San Francisco.

Ryan Garko and David Dellucci each drove in a run while Grady Sizemore singled and scored for Cleveland, which has lost five of its last seven.

Sizemore is 4-for-14 with a double, homer and three RBIs lifetime versus Zito, but has also struck out six times.