Game Wrap 8/14/2011: Giants 5 Marlins 2

The Giants needed to win a series in the worst way. Today, the offense broke out the long ball and Ryan Vogelsong put on a pitching clinic to carry the team to a 2-1 series win on the road over a team that literally almost destroyed them in a 3 game sweep in SF earlier in the season. Key Lines:

Cody Ross- 2 for 5, HR(9). BA= .245. I like Cody Ross leading off. His .331 OBP is not exciting, but it's .086 higher than his BA and he tends to see a lot of pitches. It's also the second highest out of current players on the 25 man active roster after Pablo Sandoval's .353. Today, he broke the streak of 21 consecutive solo HR's with a 2 run blast in the 3'rd inning.

Nate Schierholtz- 1 for 4, HR(8). BA= .276. Nate missed a 3 run dinger in the first inning as his drive down the RF line hooked foul by less than a foot way up near the top of the foul pole.

Brandon Belt- 2 for 4, 2 HR(4). BA= .232. Maybe the Marlins didn't have a scouting report on Belt, or maybe their pitchers just didn't execute, but you cannot let his kid get his arms extended. He gets such tremendous leverage and bat head speed out there and he's terrific at driving pitches on the outside corner to the opposite field. To have any chance at all against him, you have to pound the ball in on his fists and keep doing it. He's choking up on the bat by about a half inch now so he may be better able to turn on inside pitches than in the past. He turned smartly on one for his second HR. off a LHP no less, but the pitch was out over the plate. I would think this game earned him a chance to start more games in the near future.

Ryan Vogelsong- 7.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 2.47. Vogey put on a clinic of how to pitch with the fastball today. He wore out the outside corner with an 88 MPH cutter and a 92-93 MPH 4 seamer that prevented the Marlins' batters from timing the pitches. That enabled him to drop in an occasional curveball for a strike that froze the batters because they could not be expecting it. As for those who have been predicting a regression because of walk rates, he didn't walk his first batter until the 8'th inning. Just a nice, nice piece of pitching. Where, oh where would this team be without Ryan Vogelsong?

Vogey also flashed a bit of anger when he was HBP in the 7'th by Burke Badenhop. The Hopper threw two heat seakers in a row and the second one got Vogey on the left upper arm. Volstad had thrown a heat seaker near his head earlier in the game. Vogey turned around and threw his bat down then gave the catcher an earful holding up 3 fingers while saying he'd been thrown at 3 times. I doubt the Marlins were trying to hit him. Vogey is a pretty good hitter, but it's still probably not necessary to throw heat seakers to the opposing pitcher unless he's done damage in a prior AB.

Anyway, love that Vogey stood up for himself, yet stayed under control enough to not get himself thrown out. Kudos to the ump for letting him have his say. Seemed like maybe the ump thought he had a point.

With the Win, the Giants kept pace with the NL West leading D'Backs 2 games behind the leaders who topped the Mets again 5-3.

The Giants now move on to ATL where they take on the Braves. It would be nice to at least split the 4 game series but they absolutely have to win 1 of the games. Madison Bumgarner takes on Tim Hudson in game 1.