SAN DIEGO -- In January, after the Padres traded for
When the Padres landed the former Cy Young Award winner in a deal with Tampa Bay, they envisioned nights like this one. Snell, who entered play with an ERA north of 5, carried a no-hitter through six innings on Friday night in San Diego’s 2-0 victory over the Mets at Petco Park. \n\n“Honestly, I just needed a start like this to feel that fire,” Snell said afterward. “Just kind of feel what it’s like to be myself again.”
In his longest outing since April 2019, Snell pitched seven innings of scoreless, one-hit ball and struck out 10. The left-hander punctuated his efforts with an all-time escape act in the top of the seventh, after Francisco Lindor led off the frame with a single that left fielder Tommy Pham misplayed into three bases.\n\nWith Lindor as the potential tying run at third base, Snell struck out James McCann and Pete Alonso popped to third base. With two outs and two strikes, Snell got Brandon Drury to swing through a 97 mph fastball with his 101st pitch of the night. He hopped off the mound and let loose a scream. Then another.\n\n“I just said: This is my night, I’m not letting no one go across that plate,” Snell said. “... As that inning went, I just knew I was going to have a lot behind every fastball. Might as well throw it as hard as I can and see what they can do with it.”
\n\n☢️ Zilla goes nuclear ☢️#HungryForMore pic.twitter.com/8Xq1aA8M56
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) June 5, 2021
Snell had plenty of pent-up energy to work with. His first two months in San Diego haven’t gone according to the script. The Padres gave up an awful lot to acquire Snell -- by far the most of any of the three big-name starters they traded for. Makes sense. Snell was a 28-year-old in his prime with three years of team contractual control remaining.\n\nBut in his first two months, Snell posted a 5.55 ERA and a 1.6 WHIP. He showed flashes -- his 80 strikeouts across 54 innings this season are a pretty strong indicator of the electric stuff that he possesses. But Snell’s command has eluded him too often. His starts had a tendency to spiral.\n\nOn Friday, Snell looked like a different pitcher, working crisply and economically -- throwing strikes and letting his elite swing-and-miss stuff do the rest.\n\n“He was just around the zone and on the attack,” said Padres manager Jayce Tingler. “… This was for sure his best outing so far, and it’s really something he can build on and get going.”
That last bit is the important part. The Padres need this version of Snell more frequently. He needs to figure out why everything worked so well on Friday and why it hadn’t been working for the majority of his first 11 outings this season.\n\n“Now I got to keep it going, get better from it,” Snell said. “I’ve felt good this whole time, so it’s been frustrating.”\n\nOne quick fix? Snell ditched his changeup on Friday, because he couldn’t find the zone and was falling behind in counts.\n\n“I got annoyed with my changeup,” Snell said. “I put it in timeout. I literally told the changeup, you’re in timeout, we’re not talking. I’m going to meet with the changeup in two days, we’ll see how it wants to act.”\n\nThe fastball, slider and curveball, on the other hand -- those were working just fine.