San Francisco Giants Ace Blake Snell Throws First Career No-Hitter

The San Francisco Giants got exactly what they expected out of their ace on Friday when he threw his first career ho-hitter.

Jul 27, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Blake Snell (right) hugs pitching coach Brian Price after pitching six shutout innings against the Colorado Rockies at Oracle Park / D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

During the offseason, the San Francisco Giants were trying to put together a team that would compete for the NL West crown after watching their archrival Los Angeles Dodgers spend massively to land superstar after superstar.

Their latest addition came by way of the reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell who was one of the latest players in free agency to sign after he was searching for a monster $300 million contract.

When that didn't come, the Giants were able to bring him in on a two-year, $62 million deal that would give them one of the best one-two punches in the league alongside Logan Webb.

Unfortunately, things got off to a rocky start in his tenure.

He missed Spring Training and had terrible outing after terrible outing that was marred by two separate stints on the injured list.

But when he came back the second time, something felt different.

Snell has been able to show what has made him an elite pitcher for a long time, allowing only two earned runs over his last 24 innings pitched with a ridiculous 15 strikeout effort in his outing prior to Friday's start.

Against the Cincinnati Reds, though, he delivered the finest outing of his career.

Snell threw his first career no-hitter, striking out 10 batters and walking three on his way to putting his name in the history books.

BLAKE SNELL NO-HITS THE REDS pic.twitter.com/LysTXhhTak

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 3, 2024

If many people around the league had it their way, then he wouldn't have done this in a Giants jersey as he was perhaps the best player that could have been sent to another team ahead of the trade deadline.

Instead, San Francisco decided to hold onto him, thinking he could propel a second half stretch that would get them into the playoffs.

This type of performance is exactly what they had in mind when they signed him this offseason.

Snell has now thrown the 18th no-hitter in Giants history and is the first to accomplish that feat since 2015 when Chris Heston did it against the New York Mets.