Although Ryan Vogelsong has only been on the 25-man roster since early May, the 33-year old righty has established himself as the best story of the San Francisco Giants season. He continued his dominant 2010 campaign throwing seven innings of one run ball in a 5-1 Giants victory. The win snapped San Francisco’s five game losing streak.
Vogelsong continued his campaign to earn a completely unexpected All Star Game bid, as he retired the first twelve batters he faced. He finally gave up a leadoff single to Michael Cuddyer in the fifth inning but worked his way out of a first and second jam. The only smudge on an otherwise impressive night came in the seventh inning when Tsuyoshi Nishioka reached on an infield single that scored Cuddyer.
The Giants managed just enough run support early on for Vogelsong after Eli Whiteside plated two runners with a triple in the second. Whiteside added an RBI single in the sixth inning and Aubrey Huff hit an RBI single in the seventh to complete the scoring.
Vogelsong currently stands 1 1/3 inning short of the necessary total to qualify for the ERA title. His current 1.86 ERA would tie him with Josh Beckett for the best ERA in baseball. If he can put together a solid start next time around he should reach the necessary innings to qualify as I believe innings needs to equal team games.
The Giants close out their series with the Twins on Thursday afternoon at 12:45pm. Tim Lincecum will look to win his sixth game of the season as he faces Brian Duensing.