By Morris Phillips

If nothing else, Ryan Vogelsong is a momentum pitcher.  If he gets ahead of hitters, has some success early, garners some run support, works with the lead, then Vogey does wonders.

Without those factors on his side, an efficient, effective pitcher becomes something much less, and far different from Vogelsong’s just completed month of May, which was as flawless as any month in his 10-year, big league career.

On Monday, the veteran pitcher rode momentum early, then in the fifth inning, adversity struck.

The Giants led 2-1 only to see the Pirates strike for three runs in the fifth, on their way to a series-opening 4-3 win.  With the loss, the Giants have dropped three in a row, all at home, allowing the Dodgers to re-establish a 1 ½ game lead in the NL West.

Vogelsong threw 26 pitches in the fateful fifth inning, and 110 in his six inning stint, both numbers far above what he had at any point in winning his last four starts. Given a pair of defensive gems in the outfield that prevented Pittsburgh from breaking through earlier, Vogey seemed poised for another win, were it not for run of adversity.

“I thought I threw the ball really well, just made too many mistakes in that fifth inning and it ended up costing us the game,” Vogelsong admitted.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh starter Gerrit Cole settled down in a hurry after allowing an RBI double by Brandon Belt in the first. Cole went on to throw seven innings, keeping the Giants off-balance for almost all of them outside of Belt’s hit to open the scoring. Cole’s working on an All-Star worthy season; the win improved his record to 8-2 with a 1.90 ERA.

“We’re watching him mature in front of our eyes as far as kind of navigating himself through lineups one, two, three times,” Neil Walker said of his teammate, Cole. “The guy’s first and foremost is one of the most competitive players that I’ve been around. And to watch him get out of big spots is not really uncommon.”

In the sixth, the Giants loaded the bases with no outs only to see Cole strike out Brandon Belt, then induce Brandon Crawford to hit into a double play.

Tuesday, the Giants have Chris Heston on the mound in a matchup with veteran pitch A.J. Burnett for Pittsburgh at 7:15pm.

NOTES: Former Giant Chris Stewart is finding his niche in Pittsburgh as a part-time catcher with the ability to provide an offensive boost.  After never hitting better than .241 in a season, Stewart hit .294 for the Pirates last season in 49 game appearances, and currently is at .296 through 18 games this season.  On Monday, Stewart came up with a career-best three doubles.