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Stephen Vogt uses monster day to campaign for mounds to be moved

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Stephen Vogt does not want to have to run that hard.

The veteran backup catcher made history Saturday, becoming the first Giants catcher with a multi-triple game since Steve Nicosia in 1984. But he would have rather had a pair of home runs to his name.

After his 3-for-4 game in the Giants’ 8-7 win over the Brewers, which included a sac fly and infield single, the first-year Giant added to the growing chorus that wants the bullpen mounds taken off the field — and into Triples Alley.

“If we can move the bullpens there, I’m all for it. If that’s the reasoning, having it that deep — it’s kind of frustrating when you hit a ball that far,” said Vogt, whose second triple, in the seventh inning, went into the right-center-field desert.

“At the same time, the safety of getting the bullpen mounds off of the field is more important than moving the fences in. If that’s how we have to get that down, then let’s do it. I’m all for it. We don’t need anymore — we saw Chris Taylor the other night. We don’t need anyone else tripping on those mounds. It’s not safe.”

Taylor missed a flyball that cost the Dodgers against the Giants last Saturday. He would be OK, but players such as Mac Williamson and Steven Duggar would not, both missing time after spills over the mounds that border the foul lines. Various Giants (and Dodgers) have called for the mounds to be moved, which Bruce Bochy said the franchise was looking into.

“If I hit a ball 420 feet, I want it to be a homer,” Vogt said after a ball Statcast measured at 358 feet.

It was a ball he hit 147 feet that helped secure the Giants’ victory, though. In the eighth, up 7-6, and with runners on first and third with two outs, Vogt bounced one behind second against the shift.

The 34-year-old beat out the throw to first, and the Giants had an insurance run they would need after Christian Yelich’s ninth-inning home run.

“I like to joke that the fastest human being on the planet is a baseball player that smells a hit,” Vogt said.


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