Ryan Vogelsong, who pitches for the San Francisco Giants, is 35 years old. When he came to San Francisco, at the beginning of the 2011 season, he was 33 years old and he had only started 33 games in the big leagues. His lifetime record was 10-22, and he had spent most of the last decade bouncing around in the Pittsburgh Pirates' system. But since coming to San Francisco, he has done great. Last year, he went 13-7 with an ERA of 2.71. This year, he went 14-9 with an ERA of 3.37, and he was the guy the Giants relied upon to beat Chris Carpenter and take the Giants to a seventh game.
Vogelsong did it, allowing only one run in seven innings and striking out nine Cardinals as the Giants cruised to an easy 5-1 victory. And as a result, we are headed for Game 7. Ironically, the last time the NLCS went to Game 7 was in 2006 -- when the St. Louis Cardinals prevailed in order to set up a World Series with . . . wait for it . . . the Detroit Tigers!
Up to this point, neither the Giants nor the Cardinals have lost a game that they really had to have. The 2010 and 2011 World Champions have put on an excellent display of clutch baseball throughout these playoffs, and both teams have shown an amazing capacity to survive. But tomorrow one of them will finally be eliminated.
NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (Best of 7):
San Francisco and St. Louis are tied 3-3
AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (Best of 7):
Detroit beat New York 4-0
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