*Photo from ABC7 News*
Tyler Fitzgerald drove in a pair of runs, Blake Snell made history, and the San Francisco Giants defeated the Cincinnati Reds with a 3-0 victory Friday night in Cincinnati.
Entering the game, Snell had never completed 8 innings in his career, so he hadn't thrown a complete game either. Not only did he do both of those things, but he threw the 3rd no hitter of the season in the majors to give the Giants their 7th win in 10 games, now just one game under .500 at 55-56. Snell got just enough run support and took over from there.
San Francisco catcher Patrick Bailey said after the game "There’s been a bunch of crap about him not going deep into games. We were joking about it the other day. I was like, ‘We’re going to go nine shutty together.’ I think one of us was like, ‘Why not just throw a no-hitter?’"
After a scoreless first inning, the Giants grabbed the lead in the second. Casey Schmitt got the team on the board, hitting his 4th home run of the season in the form of a solo shot to center field to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.
It became the Fitzgerald show at the plate after that. Later in the second, he doubled to left center field, bringing home Marco Luciano to double the lead to 2-0. The score remained the same until the 7th inning, when Fitzgerald hit a solo home run to center field, making it 3-0 Giants on his 10th homer of the year.
Snell tossed the 18th no hitter in Giants history on the mound and the first since Chris Heston did so in 2015. He walked 3 hitters and struck out 11, needing 114 pitches to get it done. He also did this after Logan Webb threw a shutout on Wednesday, the first time Giants starting pitchers have thrown back to back shutouts since August of 2002.
Giants manager Bob Melvin said of the no hitter "That’s as nervous as I’ve been in a long time. I wanted that for him so bad. If anybody has the stuff to throw a no-hitter, it’s Blake Snell. It finally came through. Pitched nine innings of no-hit ball. He’s got that feather in his cap, which is pretty cool."
Andrew Abbott was the starting pitcher for the Reds, allowing a pair of runs on 7 hits and one walk in 4 1/3 innings, striking out 8 hitters. Buck Farmer pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings before Nick Martinez allowed a run in one inning. Sam Moll and Fernando Cruz each threw one scoreless inning.
Martinez, a former teammate of Snell, said of his no hitter "I don’t think that will be his only one. He’s very capable of doing that. He’s got some electric stuff. When he’s on, he’s extremely difficult to hit. Don’t like to be on the wrong side of that, but good for him. It’s really cool for him. Congratulations to Blake on that."
Game two of the series is lined up for Saturday night. Kyle Harrison gets the start for the Giants as they go for the series win, while the Reds try to even up the series behind starting pitcher Hunter Greene.
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