Vogey pitches Giants to Game 7

San Fran rallies two games to catch Cards

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO

Ryan Vogelsong and the San Francisco Giants saved their season once more, pushing St. Louis to a winner-take-all Game 7 in the NL championship series.

Turns out the defending champion Cardinals aren’t the only team that’s tough to put away in October.

Vogelsong struck out a career-best nine in another postseason gem, and the Giants held off elimination for a second straight game by beating St. Louis 6-1 on Sunday night.

Marco Scutaro delivered a two-run double and Buster Posey drove in his first run of the series with a groundout in the first inning as San Francisco struck early to support Vogelsong.

San Francisco’s Matt Cain and St. Louis’ Kyle Lohse are set to pitch in a rematch of Game 3, won by the Cardinals. There’s a forecast of rain in the Bay Area during the day.

These wild-card Cardinals sure seem to like the all-or-nothing route in October, while San Francisco thrives playing from behind.

Five games with their year on the line, five wins for these gutsy Giants this postseason. Now, it comes down to one game for the past two World Series champions to get back, with the Detroit Tigers waiting.

Pitching to chants of “Vogey! Vogey!” from the sellout crowd of 43,070 at AT&T Park, the right-hander didn’t allow a hit until Daniel Descalso’s broken-bat single to center with two outs in the fifth. Vogelsong struck out the side in the first and had already fanned five through two innings.

Vogelsong had his second stellar seven-inning outing against the Cardinals in a week, allowing four hits and one run in seven innings. He walked one in a 102-pitch performance and lowered his postseason ERA — all this year — to 1.42.