Ryan
Vogelsong once again rose to the occasion with a superb seven-inning
start similar to, but even better than, his effort last Monday in
Game Two. This time it was one run on four hits, with one walk and a
personal-best nine strikeouts. Five of the first six Cardinals batted
the breeze against Vogelsong; meanwhile the Giants built a quick 4-0
lead and never looked back. For the first time in this entire
postseason, the Giants' collective starting pitching is starting to
resemble the dominating form showed back in 2010. That can't be good
news for the opposition, no matter who they may be.
And
so we come to Game Seven tonight, with Matt Cain starting against
Kyle Lohse at the 'Bell; 8:00 PM EDT (5 PM local time). It's the same
pitching matchup from Game Three, though likely to be conducted
without a three-hour rain delay. Lohse had far more to do with the
Giants' close defeat in that game than did the weather, and let's
forcibly remind ourselves at this point that while the last two games
have been fantastic, this series ain't over, even though it is now
even. This is the same Cardinals team that rallied from 6-0 against
Washington in a decisive Game Five of the NLDS, and while every
Redbird from manager Mike Matheny down to the batboy knows they blew
their best chance Friday night back at Busch Stadium, they have every
bit of confidence they can come out tonight, right what they see as a
terrible wrong, and move on to face the Detroit Tigers in the World
Series beginning Wednesday night.
Speaking
of wrongs, things went that way quickly for the Cards last night, as
soon as everyone could see Vogelsong was making his pitches and Chris
Carpenter wasn't. Faster than FOX-TV commentator Tim McCarver, the
venerable ex-Cardinal catcher, could note that "location"
was key to Carpenter's success, the St Louis starter fell behind each
of the first four Giants he faced. Marco "Series MVP"
Scutaro drew a five-pitch walk and Pablo Sandoval belted a 2-0 pitch
off the wall in center. Buster Posey then clipped a grounder up the
line at third
that took a funny hop and seemed to freeze David Freese for a moment;
he looked homeward, but sensibly thought better of it and threw Posey
out instead as Scutaro scored the game's first run. Carpenter struck
out struggling Hunter Pence on a 2-2 sinker and knew he was fortunate
to get out of that one with minimal damage. The lefty hitters who
faced him in the second were less cooperative. Leading off, Brandon
Belt-ed the loudest shot of the night, a rocket that caromed off the
brick tower in right and bounced around long enough for Belt to leg
out a triple. Carpenter fanned the clearly overeager Gregor Blanco,
then walked Brandon Crawford to set up the double-play opportunity
with Vogelsong due up. As Ryan showed bunt, Freese came in and
shortstop Pete Kozma took a step toward second. Vogelsong then drew
it back and slapped a grounder to the exact spot Kozma had vacated.
Rushing to make the play, Kozma fumbled the ball instead, Belt
scoring and all hands safe. Again, Carpenter got the K he needed
against Angel Pagan, but that only brought up Scutaro, who drilled a
1-1 pitch into the left-field corner, clearing the bases as the SRO
'Bell crowd went completely bananas. Sandoval followed with a RBI
shot up the middle, making it 5-0, and the three unearned runs made a
positively appalling NLCS total of ten for the team which
allowed the fewest such over the regular season. Ain't it crazy?
It
wasn't until the sixth that St Louis finally touched Vogelsong for a
run, with the ubiquitous Carlos Beltran's one-out double followed by
a RBI single from Allen (.150) Craig. "Vogey"
finished the frame, received a standing O as he walked to the dugout,
and gave way to Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla, and the unsinkable
Sergio Romo for the final six outs. Meanwhile, Matheny needed three
pitchers just to get through the eighth, where Ryan Theriot, the man
who lost his job to Scutaro at midseason, emulated him capably with a
two-out RBI single to put the lead back at five. Scant minutes
later, Romo led the on-field congratulations as Angel Pagan settled
under Daniel Descalso's gentle fly ball for the game's final out.
Perhaps
it'd be a tad redundant to recount Vogelsong's amazing journey from
'phenom' to trade bait to has-been to never-was to the unlikeliest of
heroes, and in any case the man himself showed gratitude to God and
to his teammates during an impromptu post-game interview with the
engaging Erin Andrews. For now, and for those of you who weren't
assiduously following our every word back in spring training 2011,
we'll append the comments we made back then regarding Ryan's
prospects, and let them stand as written for perspective on baseball,
life, and what have you. From February 19, 2011:
Anyone
else notice that Nick Noonan, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, and
Ryan Vogelsong are all among the non-roster invitees to camp? (T)he
name that caught
our
attention first and actually prompted this portion of the screed was
Vogelsong's. Here's a dude who was a Giant prospect back in 1998,
and three years later was the key to the Jason Schmidt trade. He
never made it in the majors, winning a total of ten games in about
seven years, and the story went that Sabean had unloaded him as
damaged goods on the unsuspecting Pirates. Now 33, he's been out of
the big show since 2006. While we hope all 22 of these NRIs do well
and land a job somewhere, it'd
be a treat if Vogelsong has enough left to catch on with the Giants
and maybe contribute out of the bullpen down the stretch.
No comments:
Post a Comment