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COL@SF: Vogelsong holds Rockies to one run over seven

After dealing with questions about a back injection after his May 8 start against the Dodgers, Giants right-hander Ryan Vogelsong quieted any noise of him dealing with discomfort when he tossed seven innings of one run ball versus the Rockies on Monday.

The 34-year-old will try to continue his scorching month when the Giants square off against the Athletics on Saturday in the second game of the weekend Interleague series.

In three starts in May so far, Vogelsong has surrendered just three earned runs on 19 hits over 21 1/3 innings.

Against the Rockies, he allowed three hits in his outing despite running up full counts on seven of the first 14 hitters he faced while walking five.

"I was just trying to survive until I found something that worked," he said. "I gave up that home run and I kind of found something while I was warming up between innings. It wasn't really one thing. It was kind of something different each inning."

Vogelsong will be making his second career start, third appearance, against the A's, a team that he has a 5.40 ERA against.

On the hill for Oakland will be righty Tyson Ross. The 25-year-old snapped his three-game losing streak in his last start, a 5-0 A's win at the Angels on Monday. He tossed six shutout innings while surrendering just five hits.

Ross has dominated at Angel Stadium, where he owns a 2.03 ERA spanning five career appearances, four of them starts.

"I think it's just the mound here," Ross explained after that start. "I feel like I'm right on top of the hitter. It's always fun when there's a good crowd out there, too, especially an opposing crowd."

Athletics: Crisp, Cespedes getting closer
Yoenis Cespedes and Coco Crisp rejoined the A's on Friday in San Francisco.

Crisp, who was eligible to be activated from the DL on Friday, took batting practice with the team and engaged in full baseball activity, all the while appearing fully healed from an inner ear infection that has allowed him to play in just 18 games this season.

The plan is for him to do the same Saturday, at which point the A's will decide whether he will return to Oakland's lineup.

Cespedes, meanwhile, acknowledged his left hand feels better, but there's still no timetable on when he'll begin swinging a bat again. The center fielder was scheduled to see a doctor later in the evening and is eligible to come off the DL on Tuesday.

Giants: Posey rests
Manager Bruce Bochy sat catcher Buster Posey out of the lineup against the A's on Friday.

Posey wasn't expected to catch, since Hector Sanchez typically plays when Barry Zito starts. Posey went 5-for-8 in the two-game series against St. Louis, lifting his batting average from .280 to .302.

"It's not easy to take your cleanup hitter out of the lineup," Bochy said. "But you hear me say this all the time: diminishing returns."

Nearly a year removed from sustaining multiple left leg injuries, Posey appeared in 34 of San Francisco's first 39 games.

Worth noting
• The Giants' Angel Pagan has hit safely in 29 of his last 30 games.

• Jemile Weeks was caught stealing in the first inning Thursday, ending the A's streak of 20 consecutive successful stolen-base attempts, the third-longest streak in Oakland history.

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