San Francisco Giant: Ryan Vogelsong inspires former teammates to win

If there is one thing the San Francisco Giants have been great at since they moved into AT&T Park, it is to honor their past, and they did just that as Ryan Vogelsong retired a Giant before a 7-2 win on Sunday.

Vogelsong, who was drafted by the San Francisco  Giants in 1998 and debuted in 2000 in the Major Leagues, was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2001 as part of the Jason Schmidt trade. He returned to the Giants in 2011 and pitched the next five seasons in orange and black. He was honored today by coming out to the mound to throw three ceremonial warmup pitches before manager Bruce Bochy went to get him and bring in starter Chris Stratton to replace him.

Stratton was reminiscent of Vogelsong, pitching six innings and allowing two earned runs while striking out four and walking one. The bullpen backed up Stratton with three scoreless frames.

It was fitting to send Vogelsong into retirement with a win, who won many big games for the Giants. As a member of both the 2012 and 2014 championship teams, the Giants won all seven games he started in those post-seasons.

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His playoff career ended with a 3-0 record and a 2.92 ERA. All three wins came in 2012, where he won two games of the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals, including Game 6 to force a Game 7, and defeated the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.

Another postseason hero in 2012 and 2014, Pablo Sandoval, led the Giants offense today, with three RBI’s, including his first right handed home run since 2014. It was actually his first extra base hit right handed as well, going 6-86 (.070) with six singles, according to Andrew Baggarly.

Fun Fact: When Sandoval homered last from the right side, the starting pitcher for the Giants was Ryan Vogelsong.

Joe Panik, who also has a ring from that 2014 championship team as well, had two more hits today to raise his season batting average to .289.  Panik was part of two rallies to give the Giants the early lead.

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The Giants first four runs came courtesy of seven singles, two sac flies, a fielder’s choice and a walk. Even when the Giants win, it is peak 2017.