The San Francisco Giants hope their red-hot pitching staff can continue its recent dominance when they take on the host Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night in the second game of a three-game series.
After Logan Webb tossed a five-hit shutout Wednesday in a 1-0 win over the Oakland Athletics, left-hander Blake Snell went one better Friday night in Cincinnati.
Snell threw the first no-hitter of his career and the 18th in Giants history to lead the Giants to a 3-0 win, their sixth victory in seven games.
Snell, who walked three and struck out 11 on Friday, had been the subject of trade rumors before the MLB trade deadline on Tuesday.
“Everyone’s playing for someone else,” said Mike Yastrzemski, whose leaping grab of an Elly De La Cruz liner to right concluded the third no-hitter in the majors this season.
The win moved the Giants within one game of .500 at 55-56 and two games ahead of the Reds for seventh place in National League wild-card race. Now, the Giants have back-to-back complete-game shutouts for the first time since Jason Schmidt and Livan Hernandez in 2002 and a building chemistry in the clubhouse.
“It’s collective, but it’s more the mentality of the freedom you have as a player when you’re really pulling for your guys,” Yastrzemski added.
Shooting for a third consecutive dominant start for the Giants on Saturday will be left-hander Kyle Harrison (6-4, 3.69 ERA), who will make his 19th start of the season.
Harrison allowed just one hit over 6 2/3 innings in his most recent outing against Colorado in an 11-4 win, striking out 11 and walking two on July 26.
Harrison is 1-0 with a 2.38 ERA in two career starts against Cincinnati. Both starts have come at home.
The Reds will counter with right-handed ace Hunter Greene (7-4, 2.97 ERA), who will make his 22nd start of the season.
Greene was, by far, Cincinnati’s most consistent starter in July, going 2-0 with a 0.33 ERA in four starts. He has allowed just nine hits and one run over his past 27 innings. Despite Greene giving up just one run in the four starts, Cincinnati won just two of those four games.
Greene will make his second career start against San Francisco. On Aug. 30, 2023, he allowed just one unearned run and three hits over 5 1/3 innings and earned the win in Cincinnati’s 4-1 triumph in San Francisco.
After winning the first two games of their six-game homestand, the Reds have dropped their past two games, including Friday’s no-hitter, their first no-hit loss since May 2019.
“We just move on to (Saturday). It is what it is. It’s just like another loss,” Reds center fielder TJ Friedl said. “Then you move on to tomorrow. I think the biggest thing about playing 162 games is being able to separate it. So you know, (Friday) was wasn’t our best day. And we’ll pick it up (Saturday) and move forward.”
