“No-hit stuff” is a term used in baseball to describe a pitcher who can dominate hitters and make them look silly.
Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, has always had this ability. However, he struggled with consistency and efficiency, which kept him from throwing a no-hitter for years. His most famous game was when he got pulled early.
Remember Game 6 of the 2020 World Series? The Rays were about to be eliminated. Snell was pitching a one-hit shutout through 5 1/3 innings when Austin Barnes singled. Manager Kevin Cash then pulled Snell out. Mookie Betts doubled off Nick Anderson, a wild pitch tied the game, and the Dodgers took the lead with a grounder. They won the World Series shortly after.
Snell has often dominated through middle innings but got pulled three times with zero hits allowed in the fifth inning or later. Twice he was pulled after seven hitless innings! Only Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax have more starts like that.
Would you believe it? In his 202 career starts, Snell allowed zero or one hit 23 times and two or fewer hits 50 times! Fifty!
Snell’s Impressive Stretches:
In 2018, Snell had an ERA of 1.25 in his last 16 starts and finished the season with an ERA of 1.89.
In 2019, he had five starts with an ERA of just 1.78.
During his last eight starts in 2021, Snell posted an ERA of just 1.83.
In 2022, he had two five-start stretches with ERAs of only 0.94 each time and ended his last four games with an ERA of just 0.72.
Last season began rough for him with a nine-start ERA of 5.40 but ended strong at just a stellar 1.20 over his final stretch.
He’s on fire again now! Despite signing late in spring training and starting this season poorly before hitting the injured list, he’s back to being Good Blake Snell since returning.
Fans might think it’s amazing how unpredictable baseball can be sometimes!
Over his last five starts: eight hits allowed across them all; only two runs given up; ten walks; forty-one strikeouts over thirty-three innings—resulting in both an astonishingly low ERA (0.55) AND WHIP (also at exactly 0 .55). He’s looking like THE best pitcher once more!
But until Friday night’s game against Reds where things changed forever…he’d never made it past eighth inning nor pitched ninth during regular seasons either due exclusively playing as starter throughout career thus far…
When we saw that “H” column still showing zeroes late into Friday night’s match-up versus Cincinnati Reds while keeping track count closely alongside everyone else watching intently too…that familiar sinking feeling returned once more thinking surely history would repeat itself yet again by seeing him get pulled prematurely from another potential no-hitter attempt…but instead…
Nope—not THIS time around!!
“They can’t say it anymore,” said Snell post-game triumphantly declaring victory finally achieving complete-game shutout no-hitter status adding further emphatically “Leave me alone!”
So there you have it folks—Blake finally finished HIS own game securing not only complete-game shutout but also elusive no-hitter accomplishment long awaited proving all doubters wrong once & forevermore!!
What do YOU think about this incredible feat?
