BALTIMORE — The orange-clad fans at Camden Yards know that playoff baseball is a near certainty for their hometown Baltimore Orioles in October. But it might be a while before they know their opponent.
The Orioles could overtake the New York Yankees for the AL East and sit out the wild-card round. They could finish the season at Minnesota and then immediately renew acquaintances with the Twins in a best-of-three series. They could tangle with the Kansas City Royals or even (yes, really!) the Detroit Tigers.
But this much is certain: They will not have to face the suffocating task of hitting against left-hander Blake Snell in Game 1. And for that, the Orioles can be grateful.
The entire playoff field in both leagues can be grateful.
Snell reasserted himself as the best pitcher on the planet who will be playing video games in October. The San Francisco Giants left-hander dominated the Orioles on Tuesday night in a 10-0 victory, holding them to a hit in six shutout innings, striking out 12 and feeling so many oats with his changeup that he even threw it to a left-handed hitter for the first time he could remember in a major-league game.
Snell will be playing video games because the Giants have failed to maintain their orbit on the postseason. They let too many games slip away when they failed to score early, failed to move runners, failed to come through in situational at-bats, failed to add on to slim leads, and had to go to the bullpen far too early. So in several respects, their series-opening victory against a playoff-caliber opponent represented the energetic style of baseball they still hoped to spark following a desultory homestand at the end of a lost season.
Mike Yastrzemski, never more than a six-year farmhand in Baltimore’s system, led off the game with a home run, lined an RBI single in his next at-bat and added a coda in the form of a 12-pitch walk. Grant McCray stole two bases and scored three runs to help the Giants match the Orioles’ youth and energy. And LaMonte Wade Jr., playing his first major-league game in the city of his birth, collected two hits, including a two-run single in a six-run ninth inning.
Poured it on in the 9th pic.twitter.com/aDyTvKQpeQ
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) September 18, 2024
Playing more games like Tuesday’s over this final nine-game trip, and the three home games against the St. Louis Cardinals to end the season, would do more than sprinkle a sugar packet on bitterness and dissatisfaction. It might save some people their jobs, too.
And in Snell’s case, every dominant outing could be worth millions to him on the open market.
“I was adjusting out there, reading swings, reading approaches,” Snell said. “I was really happy with that. Really happy to finally get back in the zone, attack, get to six. Getting runs early is the main thing. It feels good to pitch with a lead. You can be way more aggressive.”
Snell has a 1.33 ERA in 13 starts since returning from the injured list July 9. He’s held batters to a .125 average. He’s mixed in a couple of starts when a 40-plus-pitch inning led to an early exit — he lasted three innings at Seattle on Aug. 24 and just one inning on 42 pitches Sept. 5 versus the Arizona Diamondbacks — but the overall numbers either rival or exceed his second-half run from last season (1.35 ERA, .163 average in 16 starts after July 1) that resulted in winning his second Cy Young Award.
“When he gets on a roll like that, sometimes it’s pretty tough to stop,” said Giants manager Bob Melvin, who also managed Snell with the San Diego Padres last season. “The second pitch of the game was a slider, and I was kind of like, ‘All right, this is different.’ Because usually he’ll drop a curveball in there or a changeup. And it was more and more sliders. He had a feel for it. That’s really what he’s all about. When he gets on runs like this, he knows what’s working on a particular day. It doesn’t have to be all four pitches. If there’s one he thinks will work against a particular team, he dials it in.”
Or he’ll dial a number he’s never punched in before.
Snell’s stuff 🤢 pic.twitter.com/SzA7ZT79Mt
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) September 18, 2024
Snell struck out Gunnar Henderson on three fastballs in the first inning, and he got ahead with sliders when he faced him again in the fourth. But after a noncompetitive miss with an 0-2 slider, something told Snell that the best way to bait the hook would be to mimic his fastball with his changeup. Both pitches had natural cut. He figured Henderson might see a fastball out of the hand and then swing over the top of a fading changeup.
Snell was right. Henderson struck out. Even as Henderson’s body turned back to the dugout, his gaze remained locked on the scoreboard until the pitch identification registered on the screen.
Henderson batted again in the sixth, and Snell got ahead with two called fastballs before turning to the slider. Henderson took two in the dirt and fouled off another. This time, it was catcher Patrick Bailey who inputted a changeup on his Pitchcom device. At least, Bailey was pretty sure he did.
Bailey certainly didn’t call the first one.
“I don’t think he’s ever thrown a left-on-left changeup, so I kind of let him lead the first one,” Bailey said, smiling. “I think I called the second one. I mean, it’s just fun. When he’s locating his fastball and four plus pitches, I can’t call a bad pitch.”
It wasn’t fun for Henderson, who stared back at the mound with a plaintive expression after striking out again.
“I’d say kudos to Gunnar for being the first guy,” Bailey said. “I mean, when you’re freaking making Blake Snell throw a pitch he’s never thrown to a lefty before, you’ve got to be doing something pretty good.”
Said Snell: “He’s such a good hitter. At his age, he’s so good. … There’s a reason I threw him changeups. I respect him. I think he’s a great hitter. I think he’s a great human. He’s very well spoken. He’s going to be good for a long time. We’ll have a lot of battles. Tonight I won, but he’s so good. So I’m sure it’s only going to get more and more difficult.”
Snell was informed that he hadn’t thrown a changeup to a lefty since 2017, according to Statcast. He said that’s probably the result of the system improperly identifying a handful of backup sliders.
You’d be excused for not identifying the Giants as the winners in orange and black Tuesday night after they’d been shut out in three of their previous four losses. They appeared invigorated while getting production up and down the lineup, including from second baseman Donovan Walton, who is being rewarded for overcoming shoulder surgery to have a solid season at Triple-A Sacramento in which he did everything including making 10 appearances as a mop-up pitcher.
The Giants needed additional infield coverage over the weekend when Tyler Fitzgerald’s back acted up, and it might have seemed strange when they added Walton to the 40-man roster instead of bringing back Thairo Estrada. But according to club officials, the move was about rewarding Walton and not punishing Estrada.
“Walton’s been fantastic,” Melvin said. “Not just on the offensive end but defensively too. He’s just a good ballplayer. He might not blow you away with some of the things he can do. He makes plays and gets hits and makes pitchers work. I’m glad he finally got an opportunity to be here. With the defensive struggles we’ve had at times, it’s nice to have someone in there who you know is going to be pretty sound defensively.”
The series opener was a homecoming for Wade, who enjoyed Monday’s break with friends and family. He had a cheering section of more than 125 people to watch him play at the ballpark where he attended games and once sang the national anthem on the field with his fifth-grade class. He’d only played at Camden Yards once before while taking part in a high school scouting showcase.
Yastrzemski played in the 2019 series at Baltimore, arriving just a few weeks after he got his big-league start with the Giants, and went 4-for-11 with a home run, a triple and three walks. His impact upon his return visit was even more immediate.
“There was a long time when I had some animosity towards them, like I felt like I should have been in a different place with them,” said Yastrzemski, who had a friendly chat with Orioles general manager Mike Elias before the game. “It got to the point where I’m just thankful, honestly, that they traded me when they did and that I got an opportunity here. Because who knows where I could’ve been if they didn’t?”
(Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
