Ryan Vogelsong's a really good pitcher.
Big inning for Giants has them leading Cardinals 5-0 in 3rd
What he's not is a strikeout pitcher. His single-game high in strikeouts this season was eight (twice) and he finished the season with 7.5 strikeouts per nine innings. He's not Bob Tewksbury, but neither is he Max Scherzer.
Which makes it all the more impressive that Vogelsong has struck out five St. Louis Cardinals in the first two innings of Game 6. In Vogelson's two previous postseason starts -- he pitched well in both, by the way -- Vogelsong struck out five Reds in five innings and four Cardinals in seven innings.
To this point, he’s simply been overpowering.
Chris Carpenter obviously hasn't been as sharp. In the bottom of the first, he gave up a walk and a long double, and was fortunate to give up just one run. In the second, Brandon Belt led off with a triple off the right-field fence. Carpenter struck out Gregor Blanco, then issued a free pass to Brandon Crawford with the pitcher coming up next.
And just the intentional walk hurt the Cardinals in Game 5, it hurt them in Game 6. Vogelsong squared around to bunt, but pulled his bat back and poked a little grounder toward shortstop ...
... where Pete Kozma booted it. Everybody was safe, including Belt at home. Kozma got the error on that play, and that extra baserunner wound up hurting quite a lot. Because after Carpenter struck out Ángel Pagán, Marco Scutaro drove a two-out, two-run double into the left-field corner.
Pablo Sandoval was next, and Carpenter just couldn't figure out a way to get him out. Finally, Panda grounded Carpenter's 10th pitch up the middle, just under the diving Daniel Descalso's glove and into center field to drive home Scutaro with the Giants' fifth run.
Buster Posey hit a grounder to shortstop, and Carpenter finally escaped. Way too late, though. After two innings it's Giants 5, Cardinals 0.
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