By Jeremy Kahn

ST. LOUIS-Pressed into a start due to the fact that Mike Leake was unable to start, Ryan Vogelsong made it two straight great starts in a row.

Vogelsong pitched six strong innings, allowing just two hits, while walking one and striking out five, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 2-0 before a crowd of 40,297 at Busch Stadium.

“After the first inning it was pretty good, a little erratic during the first inning, trying to do a little too much, ” said Vogelsong.

Due to a rain delay that hit the area a few hours prior to the first pitch, the game was delayed 31 minutes.

Brandon Crawford extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a double in the top of the fifth inning.

The Giants finally got to Cardinals starter Lance Lynn in the top of the sixth inning, as Gregor Blanco singled, then went to second on a Matt Duffy single, after a Brandon Belt flyout to centerfield, Blanco advanced and then Buster Posey walked to load the bases. Crawford then broke the scoreless tie, as grounded out to third base to score Blanco.

With the Giants leading by one run in the top of the seventh inning, and two outs, Madison Bumgarner was sent to the plate and promptly hit a single to left field that began the second rally in as many as innings.

Following the Bumgarner single, both Blanco and Duffy walked to load the bases, which ended Lynn’s night on the mound. Reliever Randy Choate then hit Brandon Belt to score Bumgarner would the final run of the game.

“Now we got to hear from him for a few days, good two out rally,” said Bruce Bochy.

Hunter Pence will miss at least two weeks due to a strained left oblique that was suffered in Pence’s final at-bat of Monday’s 2-1 loss.

“A moderate strain which is great news, the news we thought would show up,” said Bochy.

Ryan Lollis, who went to school at the University of Missouri picked up his first major hit in the top of the eighth inning.

“One of the best feelings of my life, it was a good one, pretty awesome,” said Lollis.

Lynn went 6.2 innings, allowing two runs on just four hits, walking five bad striking out six.

Sergio Romo struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth inning, to extend his scoreless inning streak up to 14.0 innings. After a walk to Matt Carpenter by Javier Lopez to open the the bottom of the ninth inning, Bochy replaced him with Santiago Casilla, who got the final three outs for his 29th save of the season.

NOTES: Bumgarner is the first Giants pitcher to record a pinch hit since Kirk Rueter did it on August 17, 2004 against the Montreal Expos at SBC (now AT&T) Park.

Belt saw his nine-game hitting streak come to an end, as he went 0-for-3 on the night.

This was the ninth time this season that the Cardinals have been shutout this season.

After tonight, all three of the most recent Giants victories have been via the shutout. On June 1, 2014 at Busch Stadium, on July 1 at AT&T Park by the final of 5-0 and tonight’s 2-0 victory.