In a victory over the Reds, Blake Snell of the Giants pitches his first no-hitter of the season.
On Friday night, Blake Snell pitched his first career no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds, striking out ten in the process as the San Francisco Giants defeated them 3-0.
The current NL Cy Young Award winner threw 114 pitches—78 of which were strikes—in his first full game after making 202 major league starts, walking three batters.
Snell, who is 31 years old, pitched brilliantly into the ninth inning, getting rid of Santiago Espinal and forcing leadoff hitter Jonathan India to make a weak comeback. Elly De La Cruz then came up and crushed Snell’s opening pitch, a fastball clocked at 97.8 mph, into the right-center field gap. However, Mike Yastrzemski, the right fielder, ran it down and jumped to make the catch. Snell was swarmed by his teammates.
Snell was particularly effective against Cincinnati’s top lineup, getting three strikeouts from India and two apiece from De La Cruz and Spencer Steer.
Snell pitched the third no-hitter in the majors this season and the eighteenth in Giants team history. On April 1, Ronal Blanco of Houston pitched a no-hitter against Toronto, and on July 25, Dylan Cease of San Diego pitched a no-hitter against Washington.
On Friday, the Giants’ Tyler Fitzgerald and Casey Schmitt each had a home run.
On July 14, Snell pitched six scoreless innings against Minnesota before Manuel Margot of the Twins hit to start the seventh inning. In his last appearance on July 27, he gave up two hits across six innings while striking out fifteen.
After taking home the Cy Young Award as a Tampa Bay Ray in 2018, he won it again while playing for San Diego the previous season. Having won the award in both leagues, he became the seventh player in major league history to do so.
Chris Heston’s no-hitter against the Giants came on June 19, 2015, during a 5-0 victory against the New York Mets.
The Oakland A’s Mike Fiers last no-hit the Reds on May 17, 2019, in a 2-0 loss.
On Friday, Reds starter Andrew Abbott gave up two runs and seven hits in just 4 1/3 innings of work. He had eight strikeouts.
“Why not just toss in a perfect game?”
Despite all of his achievements—two Cy Young Awards and an All-Star selection—Blake Snell had long since failed to accomplish one thing.
Over his nine-year Major League career, Snell had never completed eight innings, much less thrown a complete game, going into Friday. He was so frustrated by his failure to succeed that he made a commitment to finish this year.
Catcher Patrick Bailey stated, “There’s been a lot of crap about him not going deep into games.” One day, we were making jokes about it. We’re going to go nine shutty together, I said to myself. One of us said, “Why not just throw a no-hitter?” I believe.
That dream was realized on Friday night at Great American Ball Park, when a masterful Snell pitched the Giants to a 3-0 series-opening victory over the Reds, recording the 18th no-hitter in team history.
“They are no longer able to say it,” declared Snell, who also secured San Francisco’s first victory. “Whole game, no-hitter, shutout.” Give me some space.He stays out of the ninth. He doesn’t enter the eighth. Simply completed it. Give me some space.
It was the first no-hitter by a Giant since Chris Heston threw one against the Mets on June 9, 2015, and the third in Major League Baseball this season, following Ronel Blanco of the Astros (April 1 vs. Toronto) and Dylan Cease of the Padres (July 25 at Washington).
Manager Bob Melvin stated, “I’ve never felt more anxious than I do right now.” “I really wanted that for him.” Blake Snell has everything it takes to pitch a no-hitter. At last, it was successful. threw nine shutout innings of ball. It’s kind of cool that he has the feather on his cap.
After an hour-long rain delay, Snell took the mound and proved he was locked in right away, requiring just 11 pitches to strike out the side in the first inning. From then on, he continued to dominate, recording 11 strikeouts and allowing just three baserunners to reach on three walks.
A memorable evening for him, according to Reds boss David Bell. “He was excellent. We made an effort to close the gap, move ahead, and prepare to strike. He possessed amazing things. He threw a truly amazing game.
