SAN FRANCISCO —

Ryan Vogelsong, the one-time mop-up man, has found a home with the San Francisco Giants. He’s throwing as if he wants to make it permanent.

Vogelsong pitched eight fantastic innings and Andres Torres singled home the tiebreaking run, leading the Giants over the Colorado Rockies 2-1 Sunday in a series highlighted by dominant pitching.

“Until this year I was always the guy who came in when the game was lopsided either way and usually when we were behind by a lot,” Vogelsong said. “To be counted on to win games, it’s awesome, just a great feeling. It’s a role you need to do and not just hang out and be a sideshow.”

Freddy Sanchez also drove in a run for the Giants, who won their fourth in five games. Miguel Tejada had two hits.

Chris Iannetta homered for the Rockies, who are 4-12 in their last 16 games and have not won back-to-back games since May 16-17.

Vogelsong (4-1) matched his career high with eight innings, giving up a run on four hits. He walked one and struck out seven. He’s allowed one run or less in each of his past six starts. Brian Wilson worked the ninth for his 17th save in 19 chances.

Until this year, Vogelsong hadn’t pitched in the major leagues since 2006. He spent three years in Japan and shuffled between three organizations last season.

“It was a long road for him but he never gave up,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “He kept grinding to get back to the major leagues. That’s one of the best stories I’ve seen since I’ve been in the game.”

With Barry Zito beginning his minor league rehab assignment in San Jose on Monday night, the rotation could get a little clogged up.

“Voggy is not going anywhere,” Bochy said. “He’s going to pitch every fifth day. We might have to get a little creative here. We’re just starting to talk about it now.”

Matt Lindstrom (0-1) walked pinch-hitter Pat Burrell to open the eighth inning, and pinch-runner Emmanuel Burriss was sacrificed to second by Vogelsong. Burriss went to third on a wild pitch and scored easily on Torres’ tiebreaking single.

The teams combined for 10 runs in the three-game series.

“Got to hit, that’s all I’ve got,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. “You give up two runs, you should win. It’s that simple. We gave up six runs in the series but we only scored four.”

Rockies starter Jason Hammel retired 17 of his first 18 batters. He allowed one run and two hits in seven innings, walking two and striking out four.

“It’s hard knowing he’s out there working so hard for us,” Colorado outfielder Carlos Gonzalez said. “To not score any runs for him is difficult. It’s tough to lose a game like that.”

One pitch after Vogelsong thought he caught him looking at strike three for the final out of the fifth, Iannetta hit his eighth home run, a shot that easily cleared the left-field fence.

“I snap a little and get it out of the way,” Vogelsong said. “In tight games you have to go back out and pitch. I just slammed my glove down a few times and said a few things you probably don’t want to write.”

Hammel carried a no-hitter into the sixth. He got the first two outs but walked Torres. Tejada ended the no-hit bid with a hit-and-run single and Sanchez followed with his RBI single.

“He lost command there for a brief moment but because of what’s not taking place for us offensively, that’s all it takes,” Tracy said. “It comes back to we didn’t hit. We were 1 for 12 with seven strikeouts with our 2-3-4 hitters. It’s not the first day we’ve had to deal with this. It’s what is holding this team up.”

Hammel has thrown one career complete game – a loss at Los Angeles in July 2009.

NOTES: Giants 1B Brandon Belt was placed on the 15-day disabled list and replaced on the roster by INF Conor Gillaspie. … Rockies OF Dexter Fowler was out of the starting lineup with a sore abdomen. … Giants C Buster Posey visited the clubhouse for the first time since undergoing surgery on his left leg. … Hammel needs two strikeouts to match Bruce Ruffin (319) for 14th on the Rockies’ career list. … Torres was picked off first base in the eighth after getting picked off at second Saturday.

MILWAUKEE, May 27 (UPI) — Brandon Crawford hit a grand slam home run in his major league debut Friday, rallying the San Francisco Giants and Tim Lincecum to a 5-4 win over Milwaukee.

Crawford had never played above Class AA before being called up this week after the Giants had to adjust their roster due to the long-term loss of catcher Buster Posey.

Starting at shortstop, Crawford lined out to center in the third and grounded into a double play in the fifth to begin his major league career.

He came up with the bases loaded and the Giants facing a 3-1 deficit in the seventh and hit the first pitch from Shaun Marcum (6-2) over the wall in right field. Marcum came into the game with a 2.37 ERA but gave up five runs on six hits in six-plus innings.

Lincecum (5-4) got the win while lasting seven innings. He surrendered three runs, two of them on a third-inning homer by Rickie Weeks.

Brian Wilson came on to protect a one-run lead in the ninth and allowed a two-out single before picking up his 14th save.

The Giants snapped a three-game losing streak. Milwaukee had won six in a row.

Reigning National League Rookie of the Year Buster Posey, catcher for the San Francisco Giants, suffered a broken bone in his left leg last night during a home plate collision with Florida Marlins outfielder Scott Cousins. Chris Haft of mlb.com is reporting that Posey will likely miss the remainder of the season.

Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post blogs today that, “Cousins was in tears this morning, telling reporters how bad he felt,” and he quotes Cousins as saying, “It’s everywhere. No matter where I look. It’s on TV as a soon as I turn the TV on. It’s outside on TV. It’s on TV here as soon as I walk in. And when I see it I turn away. I juts dont like knowing that I could have possibly ended somebody’s season.”

Whenever a player in any sport is badly injured, some variation of following questions is invariably asked: Why did it happen? Could it have been prevented? Is the sport doing enough to protect its players?

In this instance it seems that at least Giants manager Bruce Bochy and Buster Posey’s agent Jeff Berry believe the answer to that last question is, “No,” and they think it’s time for a rule change.

Bochy, a Major League catcher for nine seasons, said in an interview today that, while he understands things like this happen in baseball, he believes that catchers “are in harm’s way [in these situations],” and that the MLB, “should consider changing the rules a little bit,” (See video for Bochy’s full comments.)

Posey’s agent Jeff Berry is none too pleased about this either:

“You leave players way too vulnerable. I can tell you Major League Baseball is less than it was before [Posey's injury]. It’s stupid. I don’t know if this ends up leading to a rule change, but it should. The guy [at the plate] is too exposed.

“If you go helmet to helmet in the NFL, it’s a $100,000 fine, but in baseball, you have a situation in which runners are [slamming into] fielders. It’s brutal. It’s borderline shocking. It just stinks for baseball. I’m going to call Major League Baseball and put this on the radar. Because it’s just wrong.”

It is easy to understand how Bochy and Berry could be so upset. They are probably each a little upset with themselves in allowing Posey, who is arguably the best hitter on a team that ranks last in the National League in runs, to be behind the plate.

Catcher is unquestionably the most dangerous position on a baseball field and already this season there have been a handful instances where Posey has been dinged up behind the plate. But maybe they should take a few days to cool down and realize that, while Posey’s injury is unfortunate, it is (say it with me) a part of the game. 

There are dozens upon dozens of plays at the plate every baseball season and the number of them that end in catastrophic injury can be counted on one hand. Things like this are going to happen from time to time. It is nonsensical to believe that every time somebody gets injured in sports a rule change is warranted.

Posey found himself in an awkward position as Cousins hit him at the plate. He was positioned on his knees with his butt on his feet. Had he been in a squat, as he was the instant before Cousins hit him, he likely would have rolled over and not suffered this injury. It was an unfortunate sequence of events where Posey ended up in the wrong position at the wrong time.

One has to wonder how much this has to do with the fact that this is Buster Posey—fan and league favorite, World Champion, and NL Rookie of the Year—and not, say, Ryan Doumit of the Pittsburgh Pirates. If Posey weren’t such a productive member of his team and so important to Major League Baseball’s marketing department, would anybody be this upset?

I can’t help but be reminded of the NHL. When Marc Savard of the Boston Bruins suffered his season-ending concussion last year, people started to buzz a little bit about player safety. But it wasn’t until Sidney Crosby was concussed in the middle of this season that the NHL really began its crusade against hits to the head. How come nobody calls for rules changes until a high-profile player is seriously injured?  

Sports are sometimes dangerous. There are times when these dangers supersede the entertainment value of the game and a change needs to be made. Catchers suffering injury on plays at the plate is not an epidemic on par with concussions in the NFL, as Mr. Berry would have us believe. This was an unfortunate accident and nothing more. Hopefully the MLB realizes that and stays away from the rulebook.