I’ve been watching the Giants for almost 20 years now and I can’t remember a Giants pitcher that pitched off his fastball more than Ryan Vogelsong over his last two NLCS starts. Maybe Jason Schmidt, when he was dominating the National League, but it’s pretty damned special what Ryan Vogelsong is doing right now with his fastball. Velocity. Movement. Location. He’s nailing all three.
Consider this: Of the first 31 pitches thrown in Game Six by Vogelsong, 28 of them were fastballs.
Here’s a graph of his pitch-type percentage by inning.
Notice the first two innings and the 88-plus percent fastball usage. He threw more offspeed pitches in the 4th inning than any other inning in the game, and then pretty much went right back to the fastball in the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings. Once again, Vogelsong used his two-seamer to jam right-handed batters and, when he needed to, he’d tail the two-seam back over the outside of the zone against those same RHBs. Lots and lots of fastball precision on the night for Vogelsong. He’s clearly pitching on some other level right now.
Vogelsong’s final line — 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 SO — is only one part of the night. Vogelsong’s performance in this postseason speaks volumes for the sheer amount of intestinal fortitude that the man possesses. Vogelsong gave the Giants exactly what they needed: a dominant shut-down performance in a must-win playoff game that largely rested the bullpen.
What more can I say? Ryan Vogelsong is a pitching wizard.
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GIFS!
This is when I officially knew that it was going to be a good night. Great call by Bochy. And I can only imagine how excited it made Mike Krukow.
Would you judge me if I started a Kickstarter for Marco Scutaro? Just. Keeps. On. Hittingggg.
Nope, this isn’t the same GIF from yesterday’s Vogelsong post. Allen Craig is going to have nightmares of two-seamers, I tell ya. “Can’t sleep. Two-seamer’ll eat me.”
A super-slow motion, 5000 frames per second GIF of a man getting hit in the face by a baseball on a broken bat single? This isn’t beneath me. I was born without a scruples gland.
This is your brain. This is your brain on sliders. It’s not a GIF post until I hammer in a Romo_slider.gif into the mix. Missed it by a foot.
So happy. So GIF-able.
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Game Seven is happening. Wow.
