VogelSTRONG

Giants had been waiting for something to happen, some spark, someone to stop the bleeding. They needed a stopper.

Enter: Ryan Vogelsong

Vogelsong was his usual dominant self last night and provided the Giants with a huge lift pitching 7 strong innings and allowing only 1 run. Ryan has continued to give us the best baseball story of the season and perhaps the next great Disney movie of perseverance and victory.

The climax of the movie would be when Bochy awards him with a spot on the 2011 NL All Star team roster.

To think where we'd be without this guy is mind boggling. Of the 11 starts he has had so far this season, The Giants have won 8 of them, with Vogelsong picking up the decision in 5. If he had 2 and a third innings more under his belt he would qualify for the NL lead in ERA at 1.86.

His one loss this season? to the Marlins where Ryan pitched 8 innings allowing one run with the Giants going on to lose the game 1-0. Vogelsong has been nothing short of spectacular and on the day after Bumgarner gave a very rare and disastrous performance, he provided stability.

Watching him pitch yesterday was pure mastery. The most amazing thing is how well he's hitting his target. Whiteside will set up for a fastball on the outter half of the plate, and that's where it goes, his breaking balls have wicked sink to them at the end of the pitch and he locates everything well. If Brandon Crawford hadn't kicked a couple balls yesterday we could be looking at another shutout performance.

Now comes the hard part.

How do you in good conscience take away a guy's spot who has been this instrumental to his team's success? Well the answer is you don't, Bochy's already addressed that Voggy is not going anywhere when Barry Zito comes back off the DL, but what to do with Barry is the bigger question. The good news is that the day for Vogelsong's next start is actually the same day as a doubleheader in Chicago. For that, Vogelsong would get the start for game 1 of the doubleheader and Zito would get game 2. That at least gives the Giants one more rotation to figure out what to do with Zito and whether or not the Giants want to extend to a six man rotation.

Some have even guessed that Zito might be able to give Bumgarner a break, but Bochy has already shot down that idea saying it would only make it worse, and that Bumgarner just needs to get back on the hill and try again.

Eitherway, I'm just glad we have Vogelsong on our side.

Oh and stay hot Eli Whiteside (3 RBIs yesterday)

Laws of the Day

Vogelsong has had 8 quality starts in his last 10 and the Giants are 7-3 in those games.