KEVIN GAUSMAN saw his own reflection in the numbers; their stark, unsentimental truth contained a judgment, and a promise. Everything he knew about himself as a pitcher could be found inside them: strengths, flaws, anxieties. It was liberating, and maybe a little unsettling, for Gausman to realize the San Francisco Giants, making the case to Gausman that he should join their team back in 2019, seemed to have access to the deepest recesses of his mind.
Like most starters, Gausman threw four pitches. Like most starters, he knew those four pitches were not created equal.