Ryan Vogelsong continues his postseason tuneup Friday evening when the NL West-champion San Francisco Giants open a three-game series against the San Diego Padres.
Vogelsong turned in an encouraging outing last Friday against these same Padres, holding them to a run on five hits and one walk while fanning four. His lone mistake was a fourth-inning solo homer to Chase Headley.
The right-hander had been winless in his previous three outings, going 0-2 while yielding 16 earned runs over just 11 2/3 innings. That had pushed his earned run average to 10.31 over his seven most recent outings before Friday's solid effort.
Vogelsong is now 13-9 with a 3.58 ERA in 29 starts this season, three of those versus the Padres. He is 2-1 with a 2.81 ERA versus the division rivals.
The Giants are building momentum ahead of the postseason, winning for the 12th time in 15 games on Thursday with a 7-3 triumph over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro each hit two-run homers to back six solid innings by Barry Zito.
Zito won his sixth straight decision after limiting Arizona to three runs on six hits with three strikeouts and three walks.
"He's done a great job," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy of Zito. "He's had a real nice year, and it's been fun to watch how he's bounced back and really put together a good year. He's pitched some big games for us and gotten wins when we really needed them."
Buster Posey -- locked in a tight race with the Pirates' Andrew McCutchen for the NL batting title -- added a few more hits Thursday, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. Posey is hitting .333 on the year to McCutchen's .332.
Posey is hitless in his only career at-bat versus Padres rookie starter Andrew Werner, who faced the Giants for the first time in his brief career on Saturday. Posey hit a sacrifice fly off the lefty in the first inning of an 8-4 win and then grounded out in the third.
Werner lasted just 3 2/3 innings in taking the loss, charged with five runs on six hits and three walks. It was the second setback of his career and came in his sixth start.
The 25-year-old is 2-2 with a 4.64 ERA, having allowed 10 runs in 8 2/3 innings over his previous two outings.
San Diego is playing out the string, losing for the sixth time in nine games on Thursday with an 8-4 setback to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Casey Kelly was knocked around for five runs on six hits with six strikeouts and two walks over 4 2/3 innings in defeat.
"A guy that hasn't logged a lot of professional innings here in the big leagues, learning on the job, he's cutting his teeth," Padres manager Bud Black said of Kelly. "He'll be better off for games like tonight moving forward. These are invaluable for him."
Mark Kotsay smoked a pinch-hit, two-run double, while Carlos Quentin and Will Venable each had an RBI in a losing cause. Yonder Alonso had three hits and scored a run.
The Giants have won 16 of their last 22 versus the Padres, winning four of six in San Diego this season.
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