SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres traveled north to face the San Francisco Giants in a four-game clash this week, and it didn’t go well. They ran into a red-hot Giants team on a seven-game winning streak that showed no signs of slowing down.
The Padres lost via a walk-off home run in the first game, a walk-off walk in the second game, and lost with Yu Darvish on the mound in the third game. So the Padres needed Blake Snell to help stop the bleeding.
Luckily for the Padres, he did.
Javier Reyes, the Locked On Padres podcast host, was joined by Ben Kaspick of the Locked On Giants podcast to review the four-game series between the NL West rivals and talk about Snell’s performance in the finale.
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Reyes noted about Snell, “His ERA was 5.04 at the end of May, and now he’s at 3.22.” Snell pitched six innings, only gave up three hits, didn’t walk anyone, and struck out 11. He had 22 whiffs on 39 swings, he threw his four-seamer the most, and it was averaging around 95 mph, but he got up to 97 and threw 97 pitches, 57 of which were strikes.
Snell said via MLB.com after Thursday’s game, “They're a big league team, so I look at them in that sense," He added, “They're just a really good hitting team, and if I execute, I believe I can beat a really good team.”
This was Snell's third start in a row in which he’s struck out at least 11 batters, and it’s the first time a Padres pitcher has done that since Jake Peavy accomplished the feat back in 2007. In his last six starts, Snell has 56 strikeouts to only 13 walks and has only given up two runs in 36 innings. To say he’s stepped it up lately is an understatement.
Padres manager Bob Melvin said, “Punctuating with a game like today after three tough games just means that he's on a roll. Today was pretty special, with all four pitches working."
Snell’s curveball was really working. He only threw 14, but he generated eight swings and seven whiffs.
He was just what the Padres needed, at least on the pitching side. They also needed the offense to step up, and they did in a big way.
The Padres hit three home runs on Thursday; Gary Sanchez hit his seventh of the season, and Manny Machado hit number nine on the season. Both of those came off Giants starter Alex Wood. Then Ha-Seong Kim hit his sixth home run of 2023 off reliever Jakob Junis.
So while the series as a whole wasn’t positive for the Padres, Snell and the offense salvaged the last game, and now they have positive results to build on heading into their three-game series against the Washington Nationals, which begins on Friday night back home in San Diego.
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