Vogelsong rewriting ending to Pirates career

MILWAUKEE — Ryan Vogelsong, coming back from his latest bout of adversity, continues to provide baseball with an uplifting story. More to the current point, he is providing the Pittsburgh Pirates with outs.

Vogelsong was the winning pitcher Friday night as the Pirates defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3. Over 5 1/3 innings, Vogelsong gave up two runs, both of which scored after he left the game. The Pirates, who had lost nine straight at Miller Park, have now won two in a row in Milwaukee.

And Vogelsong continued his successful comeback from the facial fractures he suffered when he was hit with a pitch on May 23. In his five starts since returning from the disabled list, Vogelsong has an earned run average of 2.48.

Vogelsong’s long and winding road to this moment included portions of five seasons with the Pirates much earlier in his career that did not go well. Vogelsong, after three years pitching in Japan, resurrected his career, becoming an integral part of two World Series championship teams with the San Francisco Giants.

As a free agent last winter, he was highly motivated to return to Pittsburgh and make some better personal history.

“I was not really happy the way things went for me in my Pirates career the first time around,” Vogelsong said. “We all know that we don’t get a lot of second chances in this life to redo things and do something differently than before. I thought about that, too, coming back and changing from the way my first Pirates experience went.”

This time the Pirates can see the inspirational quality of Vogelsong’s career.

“He wasn’t happy with the …

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