Giants shut down by Lynn and Cardinals

Ryan Vogelsong‘s start had long-inning potential.

His stuff was clicking. His fastball had bite and those breaking ones found their spots.

A Giant starter on the mound beyond the fifth inning has become a rare sight, and Vogelsong (L, 9-10, 4.19) looked determined to pave a solid path.

He hurdled an early threat in the second, intentionally walking Brandon Moss with runners in scoring position to strike out Lance Lynn. Catcher Andrew Susac liked what he saw:

“They’re a good team, we came into a couple patches where, like we had to walk Moss there, to load the bases and we got out of that jam. Had to be careful with some of their hitters in big situations.”

He added:

“He had good command of all his pitches. Changeup was good too, got us out of some big jams.”

But the Cardinals came prepared, as you’d expect, with a lineup built to slowly sand Vogelsong down. In every inning, Vogelsong would have to face at least one tough lefty.

Not that Vogelsong’s had too much trouble against them this year–lefties are batting .264, righties .238 — but the Cards’ lefties chipped away in St. Louis’ 6-0 win over the Giants Saturday afternoon.

Vogelsong kept them at bay until the fifth, when Matt Carpenter sent a sharp RBI single past Kelby Tomlinson‘s glove to score Brandon Moss, who hit a leadoff triple.

Stephen Piscotty singled and Jason Heyward walked to load the bases. Vogelsong had reached 94 pitches, he had enough:

“Was just trying to be really careful with Heyward there, just didn’t make the pitches I needed to.”

Susac attested:

“You run across hitters that might have a little better success against right-handed pitchers so you gotta kinda pick your battle there and it was the one we wanted to do. Thought we had a better shot of getting the guy on deck, but Molina came up and put a good piece on it and did the job.”

Vogelsong surrendered the mound to the king of inherited runner management, George Kontos, with Yadier Molina up to bat.

Kontos threw a wild pitch to score Carpenter from third and Molina plopped a single over to right field, clearing the bases and putting the Cards up 4-0.

Kontos, who stranded his first 26 inherited batters this season, has since allowed nine runs to come in.

Lance Lynn (W, 11-8, 2.80) finally got his first win over the Giants. He’d gone 0-4 against San Francisco with a 6.33 ERA.

Saturday he shut the Giants out through seven, departed in the eighth only after straining his right ankle on a Juan Perez ground ball. Bruce Bochy said his team’s goose egg in the runs column wasn’t entirely the offense’s fault:

“He’s got such good command of the fastball…We looked flat when you’re not scoring and trying to get the crowd into it, but he was on top of his game.”

A prospective rubber match is set for Sunday as Chris Heston will get the start against Jaime Garcia.

NOTES

Buster Posey should be back in the lineup tomorrow, Bochy said. Had some major swelling today, but was ready to pinch hit.

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