Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi resisted the urge to trade Blake Snell before Tuesday’s deadline. Now the baseball world knows why.
Six days after his 15-strikeout masterpiece against the Colorado Rockies, the two-time Cy Young Award winner kept his magic going and pitched his first career no-hitter while pacing San Francisco to a 3-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night at Great American Ball Park.
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Snell had 11 strikeouts and walked three – the only Reds players to reach base – while earning his first win in a Giants uniform.
Snell threw 114 pitches while completely shutting down a Reds offense that has been mostly mediocre for much of the season. He struck out the side twice, in the first and fourth innings.
The no-hitter is the 18th in Giants history and the first since Chris Heston did it on June 9, 2015, against the New York Mets.
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Before Friday, Snell never had pitched a complete game, nor even reached the ninth inning, in the majors. His last complete game came in 2014, in A-ball with Charlotte of the Florida State League.
Here are the three other takeaways from Friday’s historic game, which actually was delayed for 1 hour for rain that never came in Cincinnati:
Fitz sizzles in leadoff spot
After trying several different leadoff hitters, including the recently traded Jorge Soler, Giants manager Bob Melvin might have found his guy in Tyler Fitzgerald.
The rookie second baseman basically was unstoppable atop the lineup Friday, coming up a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.
After beginning the game with a swinging strikeout, Fitzgerald gathered himself and hit an RBI double off Reds starter Andrew Abbott in the second.
Fitzgerald touched Abbott for another single to lead off the fifth, then homered off Nick Martinez in the seventh.
It’s the 10th home run in 48 games for Fitzgerald, tying him with Michael Conforto for fourth most on the Giants this season. Conforto and the two Giants ahead of Fitzgerald on the list -- Matt Chapman and Heliot Ramos -- all have played 72 games or more.
Welcome back to the bigs
Jerar Encarnación returned to the majors for the first time since 2022, when he played for the Miami Marlins, and it was a definite eye-opener for the 26-year-old outfielder.
Encarnación struck out swinging in each of his first two trips to the plate, seeing just 10 total pitches in the at-bats. After grounding out in the fifth, Encarnación looked like he might have his first hit in a Giants uniform, but it was taken away by Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz, who made a diving stop.
Before being called up this week, Encarnación tore it up in the minors. He carried a .366 batting average with 19 home runs and 36 RBIs in 26 games with Oaxaca of the Mexican Baseball League, then hit .352 with 10 homers and 33 RBIs in 33 games with Triple-A Sacramento.
Interference cancels RBI single
Ramos appeared to deliver a key hit when he bounced an RBI single to left in the fifth inning, only to have the call overturned on replay.
When Ramos singled, his follow-through swing hit Tyler Stephenson on the Reds catcher's left arm. Umpires met to discuss the play and eventually cited Ramos for interference, negating the hit and RBI.
Ramos eventually struck out swinging on a pitch high outside of the zone.
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