BSI Postseason Recap: Vogelsong Dominant As Giants Push Game Seven
By Conor Duffy
The Giants are looking quite a bit like the Red Sox of a few years ago. After the Cardinals went up 3-1 in the series on a combination of excellent pitching and hitting, the Giants have come back from the brink to tie the series at 3-3 and push a Game Seven. Now, the only question is whether the Giants will be like the 2007 Red Sox or the 2008 Red Sox.
Oct 21, 2012; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong throws a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning during game six of the 2012 NLCS at AT
One would expect great pitching in a matchup of Ryan Vogelsong (2-0, 1.29 in NLCS) and Chris Carpenter (0-2, 4.50 in NLCS), but we only got it from one side last night. Vogelsong struck out the side in the first, but the same could not be said for Carpenter, as he allowed the Giants to put two runners in scoring position with one out. It looked like he could get out of it, however, when Buster Posey hit a slow grounder to third. David Freese could not get the ball out of his glove in time though, and Marco Scutaro scored from third base to make it 1-0.
The Giants came back strong in the second inning, starting with a leadoff triple by Brandon Belt. He was followed by a strikeout and an intentional walk, before the Cardinals again could’ve gotten out of it. Pitcher Ryan Vogelsong hit a slow grounder to shortstop, but while charging it, Pete Kozma bobbled it and could not turn two– allowing a run to score. That would be followed by a Marco Scutaro double and Pablo Sandoval single to score two more runs and make it 5-0.
Ryan Vogelsong continued to dominate, his only blemish being in the sixth inning. The Cardinals put together a little two out rally, culminating in an Allen Craig single to cut it to 5-1. Vogelsong would eventually leave after seven innings and an excellent performance (7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K). The Giants would eventually get that run back on an eighth inning single by Ryan Theriot and they eventually won 6-1, pushing a Game Seven in a series that looked over.