Ryan Vogelsong Reminds Viewers That Pitching Is Half the Equation as Giants Tie Series

With a tip of the cap to Melky Cabrera and Buster Posey, the Giants rode their starting pitching to the NL West title. Either because they were tired or were waiting for a thank you note, they kind of gave up.

Before tonight’s start, no Giants pitcher had finished off the sixth inning. But Ryan Vogelsong, the pitcher who, it must be pointed out, was 10-22 with a 5.86 until 2006, shut down the Cardinals offense, going 7 innings and giving up only four hits as the Giants won 7-1. Of course, there was a limit to Vogelsong’s abilities as Carlos Beltran once again proved how much he loves pumpkin spice lattes by picking up two more hits in October.

The top of the Giants lineup also deserves their due in the win. Angel Pagan lead off the game with a home run, Marco Scutaro picked up two hits and two RBI and even injury replacement Ryan Theriot added 2 RBI.

Indeed, the most memorable moment may end up being Matt Holliday’s takeout slide at second base. This is where I was going to show you a video of a dog knocking down a baby, but man, any video like that is about five minutes long and incredibly anti-climatic. So instead I’ll embed the actual video:

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Legal? Yes. Ill-intentioned? Maybe. A startling lack of spatial awareness? Gee, I hope not. Scutaro was able to remain in the game and knock in a few runs when Matt Holliday misplayed his fly ball, but he did eventually have to exit. Who knows, maybe it was all part of the Cardinals plans. After all, they’ve played with Ryan Theriot and know no one wants to put them into their postseason lineup.

With the Giants now tied up in the series and the spectre of Tim Lincecum’s first postseason start on the horizon, Game 3’s matchup of Matt Cain and Kyle Lohse just got a little more interesting. Also, here is something that may blow your mind:

Pitcher A: 16-5, 2.79 ERA, 3.78 K/BB

Pitcher B: 16-3, 2.86 ERA, 3.76 K/BB

Pitcher A is Matt Cain, Pitcher B is Kyle Lohse. No, I don’t understand baseball either.