Game 24: A long time coming -- Vogelsong wins his first MLB game in 6 years, 5-2

Despite hitting .083 with RISP, despite grounding into 5 double plays, despite leaving 18 on base, The Giants get out of Pittsburgh with 2 out of 3 (they should've swept dammit)

Watched the dots on MLB.com today because the building I work in has super secret Cobra Commander FM signal blockers in the ceiling.  Vogelsong pitched well, 8 ks in 5.2 is Lincecumian.  He only gave up a couple runs too. 

Lopez pitched another scoreless inning.  He's got a 1 ERA after 9 IP this year, and Ramirez pitched a scoreless 7th, he's also sitting at 1 and a quarter.

Weez brought his ERA down to 7.71 with 3 Ks in an uneventful 9thank god) 7th save of the year.  That puts him near the top in the NL. 

Offensively, though the boys had 10 hits, Rowand had both hits of the game (and series) with RISP, a 2 run double in the 3rd and an RBI single in the 7th. 

Panda Bear got an RBI shoudla been DP that he beat to turn into a fielder's choice.  Thank God for Camp Panda.

Giants Pregame: 4-11-11 vs Dodgers

Game 1 of the first Dodgers @ SF series will be the Giants gravy game in the series.

Gravy Game: A game where the edge might be nudged against your team for various reasons, so if you lose, well, that might be int he cards.  But if you win: that's gravy.

Clayton Kershaw looked like damn Doc Gooden (pre-crack) on opening day vs the Giants.  His next start vs the rockies showed that he's fallible, at least on the road, as he took the loss giving up 3 runs in 6 IP (off of 2 homers).  But he still got 8 Ks.

The Giants, to win tonight, need a few things working for them:

1. Madison Bumgarner has to rebound off of a sloppy first start on Tuesday vs the Padres.  Kershaw is not going to give up a lot of runs, at least you can't expect him to, so Maddy's got to get rid of walks and he's got to play crisply.  I think he was a little nervous off of his first start -- Padres' home opener, 1st start of the season -- hopefully now his eyes are not so wide, and hopefully the lack of pageantry will keep him calm.
2. Double freaking Plays are absolutely killing the Giants.  9 double plays in 9 games is something that needs to be addressed and quickly. 
3. The Giants have left 73 runners on base in 9 games, which averages out to about 8.5 runners per game.  Their walk-off win on Saturday night, they left 17 runners on base.  In games as tight as they have been playing, situational hitting is so very important.  Some of their main guys are taking a bit to get going (Huff, Posey, Burrell has double play-itis, and Belt should be producing more).  They need more RBI's.
4. Brian Wilson -- he's not been right since coming off the DL.  It's time for him to step up again and be the crazy, unhittable bastard that we and he know he can be.