Hypothetical recap: Giants drop opener to Brewers on walk-off hit

With the MLB season suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, there are no baseball games and limited baseball news. So I’m creating a hypothetical season — complete with news and recaps — until baseball resumes. All news and recaps will have the hypothetical tag, so you can at least know when you’re suspending reality. And you can click “hypothetical season” above the headline to see everything that has happened in this “season.”

This was a fun baseball game. I’ll happily take a fun baseball game, even if it has a not-fun result. Maybe in two or three years I won’t. Maybe in 2023, when the San Francisco Giants are neck-and-neck with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL West crown, I’ll take a snoozer of a winner over a compelling loss.

But for now, give me that sweet, sweet entertainment value, baby.

This game pitted Johnny Cueto (a quite nice pitcher) against the Milwaukee Brewers (a quite nice offense). Less exciting was the matchup between Eric Lauer (a mediocre pitcher) against the Giants (a quite bad offense).

So let’s focus on Cueto against the Brewers.

Cueto has been very strong all year and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him representing the Giants in the All-Star Game, or representing a different baseball club in the postseason. Both options are on the table. They’re not exclusive, either.

His strong year continued on Tuesday in Milwaukee, as he made plenty a Brewers hitter look foolish, recording 9 strikeouts in 6.2 innings, including a pair of strikeouts of former MVPs Christian Yelich and Ryan Braun. And yes, I know that Braun is nowhere near an MVP level player right now, but let me take my damn wins where I can get them. The Giants lost, so I’m going to stack the other wins when available. Thanks.

Cueto allowed 2 runs, but the Giants were able to match those runs, with Mauricio Dubon having an RBI double in the third inning, and Hunter Pence bopping a line drive single up the middle to score his good friend Buster Posey in the sixth.

The bullpens handled business, and we went to the ninth inning. The Giants flirted with success against Josh Hader, putting two men on with one out before Brandon Belt and Pablo Sandoval struck out to end the inning.

And so we went to the bottom of the ninth, with Tony Watson brought on to try and force free baseball. Logan Morrison worked a leadoff walk, and was able to advance to second on a bunt. Yes, a bunt, in this, the year of our Mays 2020.

Watson then got a popup, before entering his duel with Yelich. They fought for six pitches before Yelich gapped one to right-center, and that was the ballgame.

It was a fun one. Don’t get mad at me for saying that. I enjoyed my time watching this game, even if the Giants lost 3-2, dropped their third straight, and moved to 24-30 on the year.