Thomas and I both had to work at game time Thursday, so this wrap is a bit delayed. It’s currently 12:30 am on Friday, and I’m watching the game on DVR, writing the wrap in the bottom of the fourth inning. Because that’s the kind of game this is going to be. Again.

This Marlins series was never going to go well. Most of you may not remember when the Giants played the Marlins May 24-26 last year, but it wasn’t particularly pleasant. I’m not going to go into much detail, but it’s a chapter of our lives that you might get shot for talking about. Everything was lining up so perfectly for this series to be a terrible one. The Giants squeaked out a series win against a bad Padres team, and they knew that Dennis Hopper’s bomb would explode if they got more than two games over .500, so they didn’t want to risk it.

Honestly, I would’ve been happy if the Giants could’ve just avoided the sweep, and tried to have a series against the Marlins that didn’t result in a traumatic injury to a star player.

Whoops. So Pablo Sandoval broke his other hamate bone, and will miss 4-6 weeks. Conor Gillaspie, who has been crushing in Fresno, will get most of the reps at third, sez Boch. Gillaspie was a first-round pick by the Giants in 2008, but has been something of a forgotten man, with Sandoval’s emergence as the everyday third baseman and by Gillaspie’s lack of home run power. Optioned to Fresno describes him as a high-contact guy who rarely strikes out, but who lacks any real standout tools, and something of a liability at defense. Still, he’s having his best year so far in AAA, even by crazy inflated Fresno standards, so here’s hoping he can be something more than a warm body in the lineup.

I’m going to the game on Friday for my birthday, so there will not be a postgame wrap as such. I’ll try to figure something else out, though. If you’re in the park, shoot me a tweet and come say hi.

Brandon Watch:

Crawford: Bleh.

Belt: Three straight starts. Two 0-fers, and a multi-hit day. He looked really, really bad in Tuesday’s game. Then good, with weird baserunning. Then some good, some bad. With Huff on the shelf, Belt may actually continue to start as long as Schierholtz continues his free-fall.

Stats of the Day:

2: Hamate bones broken by Pablo Sandoval.

0: Remaining unbroken hamate bones for Pablo Sandoval. Now he is inveencible!

7: Times Gregor Blanco reached base in the Marlins series.

5: Straight games in which the Giants haven’t given up more than one run in an inning. Despite allowing a bajillion stupid baserunners, they’re stranding them at a great rate, and haven’t given up a “crooked number” since Friday, 48 innings ago.

Too many: Attempted bunts for hits by Angel Pagan. For a guy with a ton of power and crazy extra-base speed, I’d rather see him swing away.

Bonus Stat of the Day:

[poll id=”21″]