San Francisco Giants ace Blake Snell throws his first career no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds Friday night at Great American Ballpark. The two-time Cy Young Award winner Snell had never thrown a pitch in the 9th inning in his career. It is the 18th no-hitter in Giants franchise history and the first since Chris Heston in 2015. Snell goes the distance for the first time in his remarkable career, with 11 strikeouts and three walks on 114 pitches. In a week when his name was surrounded by trade deadline rumors and whether or not the Giants should have traded the 31-year-old, Snell continues his reign of dominance after an outstanding month of July.
Cy Young Snell
In Snell’s last two starts alone, he has struck out 26 batters. Just when you thought Snell could do nothing to follow up his season-high 15 strikeouts against the Colorado Rockies, he no-hits a Cincinnati team in a hitter’s friendly park. Since returning from the injured list on July 9, he’s thrown five or more innings in each of his five starts. He had not done so in his first six starts as a Giant. Instead, he battled the injury bug for most of the first half. In those starts, he has an ERA of 0.55 with 41 strikeouts.
His reputation throughout the league is largely regarded as a slow starter. He’s known as a guy that amps things up in the second half of the season. That depiction has been eerily spot-on for the 2024 campaign. Before returning from the IL in July, Snell had an ERA of 9.51. In the two seasons, Snell won the Cy Young Award, he was an All-Star in neither of them.
Wild Card Chase Ace
Only time will tell whether the decision to keep Snell at the deadline will work out for San Francisco. Giants’ general manager Farhan Zaidi told reporters Tuesday afternoon post-deadline, “We feel like we have the best rotation in baseball.”
“I think trading [Snell] would have changed the course of the season where we still believe in what we can accomplish,” Zaidi said. San Francisco did minimal to bolster the roster to make a push for the playoffs, adding veteran utility player Mark Canha from the Detroit Tigers. The Giants also traded away Alex Cobb, Luke Jackson, and the hot bat of Jorge Soler.
Through much of the year, it felt like a no-brainer that Snell would opt back into his $30 million player option for 2025. His performance as of late has made that decision all but certain. In recent years, San Francisco has the decision to hold onto big-name pitchers at the deadline during stretches of over-performing. Take Madison Bumgarner in 2019 and Carlos Rodon in 2022. In both years the Giants failed to reach the postseason and subsequently lost both arms to free agency.
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