San Francisco Giants: Handing out team awards for April

San Francisco Giants—Best Moment of April

In a difficult opening month of the season, there has been a shortage of moments to savor.

There was the four home run game in Toronto, the first since June 2018. That would be commonplace for many teams, but for a Giants squad that averaged fewer than one home run per game in April, it was very much out of the ordinary.

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There was also the 18th inning walk-off win against the Colorado Rockies, which was the seventh longest game in franchise history and lasted over five and half hours. Brandon Belt’s double to right field, had it gone over the wall, would probably have been the moment of the month.

Instead, Kevin Pillar’s grand slam against the San Diego Padres takes top honors for the moment of the month.

Maybe it was made sweeter by being hit off Eric Lauer, the pitcher who shut the Giants out over six innings on Opening Day. Maybe it felt better because fans had been made to wait two full years since seeing the last Giants player, Brandon Belt, hit a grand slam, and three full years since seeing one at home.

Either way, with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, Pillar crushed a 419-foot shot about halfway up the left field bleachers.

And as he rounded the bases, he must have known that with his first home run for his new team, in just his sixth outing in a Giants uniform, in a game they would go on to lose, he had carved himself a place in the fans’ hearts.

So that was April. Here’s hoping May provides a deeper pool of positives.