NLCS NOTES: Cain eager to follow Vogelsong’s path; Scutaro looking to return

MERCURY NEWS

October 17th, 2012

By Alex Pavlovic

After strong starts in the regular season, Ryan Vogelsong often would point across the clubhouse at Matt Cain. “I’m just trying to keep up with him,” Vogelsong would say.

The Giants now need Cain to keep up with Vogelsong.

The series is tied 1-1 thanks to Vogelsong’s magnificent effort in Game 2, and Cain will get a shot to give the Giants an edge on Wednesday. Cain and Kyle Lohse face off this afternoon at Busch Stadium, one of just two National League stadiums where Cain has made at least three starts and never picked up a win.

Cain is 0-2 with an 8.27 ERA at Busch Stadium.

“I think from top to bottom they have a bunch of guys that can hit home runs,” Cain said. “But they’re not all trying to do that at the same time. They’re all trying also to hit for decent average and really good average for a lot of those guys.

“So they don’t go up there with the same plan of trying to hit home runs. They can work counts and do different things and move guys around the bases, too.”

The Giants bullpen has been outstanding in the last five games, but at some point you figure they’ll have to win a few more games with their starting pitching. It starts with Cain, and he said he was inspired by Vogelsong’s seven-inning outing.

“That was big for us,” Cain said. “We haven’t been pulling our weight as a starting staff. And Vogey really did a good job of that. We all definitely needed that. And hopefully that right there sparks us to all pitch as well as he did.”

— The real question: Are we even going to have a game today?

There are thunderstorm warnings in St. Louis today and there is apparently a 90 percent chance of precipitation at 3 p.m., when this game is supposed to start. Now, we’ve had forecasts like that a few times this season and ended up with clear days. We’ve also had a few clear forecasts and ended up with short delays. So you never know. Weather, man.

I’ll update on Twitter and here on the blog. One thing to keep in mind: This is exactly why Bruce Bochy has not named a Game 4 starter. Imagine a scenario where Cain and Lohse pitch three shutout innings and then there’s a two-hour delay. Do you play the Lincecum card a day early?

— From the Elias Sports Bureau, Marco Scutaro and Ryan Theriot became the first set of teammates to drive in multiple postseason runs while playing the same position in the same game. Scutaro had a two-run single in the fourth inning of Game 2 and Theriot had a two-run single in the eighth inning.

— If you missed it yesterday, Scutaro (jokingly) insisted that he’s going to kick Matt Holliday’s ass.

And from Tim Kawakami, Scutaro wants the Giants to retaliate in a special way.

Dan Brown on Cain, who has a long, long history with Mr. Holliday.

— Doug Glanville just made a great point on ESPN, saying that sometimes you retaliate by doing something other than throwing at a guy. Maybe one of your guys slides hard into second, or throws it low on a double-play turn. Something like that. Or…

“You can catch a guy in a parking lot five years later,” Glanville said, smiling.

Reprinted from the Mercury News

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