Vogelsong Shuts Down Birds; Giants 15, Cardinals 0

What was really lost throughout the game was that Ryan Vogelsong threw 7 shutout innings and allowed only 3 hits and 3 walks. The defense was excellent as well. Vogelsong gave up a lead off single to Jon Jay that was immediately negated by a double play. In the bottom of the fourth, Jay lead off with another single that was negated by Buster Posey strike to catch hit stealing. Later in the bottom of the fourth with runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs, Brandon Crawford grabbed a ball on the outfield grass to throw out the runner at 1st, inning over with 0 runs. There were no other threats for Vogelsong the rest of his outing.

I know with a 15-0 lead most of the focus would be on the offense but, Vogelsong ptiched with a 2-0 lead for the majority of the game. The other 13 runs came in the last four innings. Andrew Baggerly of CSN Sportsnet Bay Area wrote an article about Ryan Vogelsong and why he is a Cy Young candidate. He has the lowest ERA in the National League and is downright unhittable with RISP. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the league is overlooking what a remarkable season Vogelsong is having this year.

After George Kontos pitched a scoreless eighth inning, Giants fans got to see Jose Mirares pitch for the Giants since being claimed off waivers. What an easier situation a 15-0 lead to work with. He allowed a leadoff single to Matt Carpenter and walked the next batter Shane Robinson but, retired the three in order. Game over.

Every player in a Giants uniform that did not pitch had a hit in the game. Everybody in the starting lineup got at least one hit. While it’s easy to see Marco Scutaro’s 3 hits and 7 RBIs he would be the player of the game. I’m going to go with Hunter Pence, who got the first RBI in the top of the first inning with two outs. The entire first inning rally was started with two outs with Melky Cabrera getting a hit, followed by a Buster Posey single. That run was all Vogelsong needed to pitch through the Cardinals lineup.

Marco Scutaro did get the second RBI of the day in the third inning, after Angel Pagan singled and a errant throw sent him from first to third base. Scutaro singled home Angel Pagan. In the top of the eighth Marco Scutaro was in a bases loaded with no outs, Scutaro singled to get 2 RBIs. What happens in the top of the ninth inning, practically the same scenario bases loaded with one out. Scutaro hit a homerun that cleared the bases.

Brandon Belt now has a three game multi-hit game streak going on, getting two hits; a single and a double. Brandon Crawford also had a multi-hit game. It’s hard not to talk about Buster Posey who had two hits and three BBs (I would want to throw a strike to this guy right now either.)

Madison Bumgarner will be on the hill for game 4 of this series and will try to take 3 of 4 from the birds.