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Hypothetical recap: Oh wow, the Giants won

A Pablo Sandoval dinger and a good start from Kevin Gausman are just what the Giants needed to beat the Rockies.

By Brady Klopfer
Milwaukee Brewers v San Francisco Giants Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images

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.”

Welcome back, Pablo Sandoval. The #ForeverGiant has only been back from the Injured List for a short time, and has mostly been a pinch-hitter during that time. But on a Friday night at Oracle Park against a right-handed pitcher in German Marquez, Sandoval got the start at third base, affording Evan Longoria the rare day off.

And it worked. Two days after hitting his first home run of the year against the Milwaukee Brewers, Sandoval followed it up with a three-run shot to the artist formerly known as triple’s alley. It came in the third inning, with the Giants already leading 1-0. Suddenly they were in business.

Kevin Gausman handled his business on the other end, quieting an admittedly eternally quiet Colorado Rockies offense. He wasn’t great, but he was good enough that against a bad Rockies team he felt great.

Gausman went 6.1 innings, and while he only struck out 2 batters, he only allowed 1 run. The contact was soft and weak. He hung a few meatballs and the Rockies batters were thoroughly unprepared for them. Against the Los Angeles Dodgers there’s a good chance that Gausman would have been destroyed. But you can only play the team in front of you, and the team in front of him was helpless to his pitches.

A few other notes:

  • Tyler Heineman got the start and had an RBI single. Feels noteworthy.
  • Shaun Anderson pitched 1 inning, allowed 0 hits, and struck out 2.
  • Tyler Rogers is way too fun.
  • Nolan Arenado did not hit a home run. Feels noteworthy.
  • Brandon Belt had two absolute rockets off the bat that found gloves. He also had a broken bat bloop single. Baseball!
  • Trevor Story did not hit a home run. Feels noteworthy.
  • The Giants won 5-1. They are now 26-31.

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