Blake Snell, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, had enjoyed his best month of the season before facing the Cincinnati Reds on Friday in San Francisco.
The Giants’ 31-year-old left-hander made four starts in July. He’d allowed all of eight hits in the four games while striking out 30. In his previous start, July 27 against San Francisco, Snell recorded 15 of his 18 outs via strikeout.
In Blake Snell’s last 5 starts, opposing hitters are 8-for-103 against him
8-for-103!
— Mark Simon (@MarkASimonSays) August 3, 2024
When Snell returned to the mound at Great American Ball Park to face a Reds team that had been struggling to muster hits lately, the result was entirely foreseeable.
Only one thing stood in Snell’s way. Not only had he never thrown a no-hitter in a nine-year career before Friday, the 31-year-old had never been allowed to complete a game.
Snell famously took a one-hit shutout into the sixth inning of Game 6 of the 2020 World Series, then was removed with one out when the Los Angeles Dodgers turned their lineup over a third time.
The Dodgers went on to win the game and the series.
Twice as a pitcher for the San Diego Padres, Snell threw seven no-hit innings, only to be relieved and see his bullpen squander a hit.
The manager in both of those games, Bob Melvin, left San Diego for San Francisco last winter, just like Snell. So why did Melvin allow Snell to finish this one off?
“He’s never been in the ninth inning before, but there comes a point in time where it’s kind of destiny for him, especially the way he’s been throwing,” Melvin said after the game. “The hard part is, you don’t want anybody warming up. We didn’t have anybody warming up.
“That’s as nervous as I’ve been in a long time. I wanted that for him so bad.”
“There comes a point in time where it’s kind of destiny for him.”
Bob Melvin had no plans to take Blake Snell off the mound tonight pic.twitter.com/jiK5YMtb9Q
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 3, 2024
So it was that Snell no-hit the Reds — the third no-hitter in MLB this season and the 14th in the history of the Giants’ franchise. Ronel Blanco no-hit the Toronto Blue Jays on April 1. On July 26, Dylan Cease no-hit the Washington Nationals.
Snell threw 114 pitches, walked three batters, and struck out 11. The start of the game was delayed 60 minutes by weather.
Tyler Fitzgerald and Casey Schmitt hit home runs in the Giants’ 3-0 victory.
Snell signed a one-year, $32 million contract with the Giants in March. His holdout for a new contract until late in spring training not only pushed back the start of his season, it led — directly or indirectly — to poor results for the season’s first three months.
By July, Snell had made two separate trips to the injured list and was 0-3 with a 9.51 ERA in six starts. Snell has a $30 million player option for 2025 that, until recently, seemed destined to be exercised, keeping him in San Francisco for another year.
Now, if Snell can maintain the form he’s demonstrated for the last month through the end of the year, he could become the best pitcher on the free-agent market come November.
In the meantime, the Giants suddenly have the hottest pitcher in baseball and a new milestone in the team’s storied history. Chris Heston threw the Giants’ previous no-hitter on June 19, 2015.
The Reds were last no-hit on May 17, 2019, by then-Oakland A’s pitcher Mike Fiers.
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