Blake Snell ups the ante with 15-K night — but what will Giants do at trade deadline? (2024)

SAN FRANCISCO — Logan Webb had the time of his life in between games of the Giants’ doubleheader. He stood on a temporary stage in the left field bleachers and joined country music star Tyler Rich while singing “Trucks Don’t Lie.” There wasn’t any way to judge Webb’s performance, though. The microphone he held wasn’t live.

The two other performances from Giants starting pitchers Saturday night? Those were amplified to the max. Blake Snell overwhelmed the Colorado Rockies with his fastball and power curve while becoming the first Giants pitcher since Tim Lincecum to strike out 15 in a game — and the first in major-league history to finish with 15 strikeouts after pitching six innings or fewer. Then in the nightcap, rookie right-hander Hayden Birdsong funneled plenty of his own curveballs past the Rockies while striking out eight in five innings.

The Giants won 4-1 behind Snell and 5-0 behind Birdsong while completing an essential sweep in a rare scheduled, single-admission twin bill. It was a commanding result that might have bought their clubhouse at least a one-day continuation to state their case to president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi as Tuesday’s trade deadline approaches.

On Country Music Night at the Giants’ waterfront ballpark, the play rotation didn’t include Willie Nelson’s “Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over.”

And if the Giants can complete the four-game sweep on Sunday, it’s not a song that Snell expects to hear.

“We win, I ain’t going nowhere,” Snell said. “At least, I believe that. I really don’t know. I’ve seen crazy things happen. I don’t look into it too much. Other than we’ve just gotta win.”

The Giants are three games under .500, they are 4 1/2 games behind the New York Mets for the third National League wild card, they’d have to climb over at least four teams to get into playoff position and their dossier up to this point does not inspire confidence they can rip off the winning run required to complete the task. They have a negative run differential. They’ve finished only one month with a winning record, and that was in May when they were a mere 15-13. Their schedule might be inviting in terms of opponent quality yet it includes 27 road games and they’re 21-33 away from home.

But suddenly, they have a rotation with the right stuff to lift off. Birdsong induced 27 swinging strikes last Sunday in Colorado. Then Robbie Ray racked up 22 whiffs in just five innings while making his long-awaited Giants debut Wednesday at Dodger Stadium. Those were the two whiffiest performances by a Giants starting pitcher all season.

Until Snell took the mound in the afternoon shadows on Saturday and got the Rockies to swing through 30 pitches — the most any major-league pitcher has generated in a start this year.

Snell struck out two in the first inning while pitching around Heliot Ramos’ misplay in center field. He struck out two more in the second inning. He fanned three in the third and three more in the fourth. Then two more in the fifth. Following a leadoff walk in the sixth, Snell set down Brenton Doyle, Brendan Rodgers and Kris Bryant before walking off the mound to a thunderous ovation.

Snell got 14 whiffs out of 20 swings against his curveball, 10 whiffs out of 21 swings against his fastball, and six whiffs out of eight swings on his changeup while becoming just the sixth pitcher in Giants history to record 15 strikeouts in a start.

“As weird as it is to say, I still feel like there’s more I can improve on,” Snell said. “But I would say the curveball is the best it’s been for a while. Last year I was happy with the changeup and that’s what made the curveball so good. You can tell like they were kind of waiting for it and trying to hit the curveball just off the last outing I had and how much I threw it against the Dodgers. And I didn’t think I was gonna throw it that much today honestly, because I was like, ‘I’m gonna switch it up, show it early and then kind of go away from it.’ But the swings I was seeing and reading, and how much I could just use the fastball and locate it, the curveball was pretty impressive.

It was a performance of permanence regardless of how much time he ends up spending in a Giants uniform. You just don’t forget rare nights like this.

Snell’s performance came on the 15th anniversary of one of the most brilliant nights of Lincecum’s career, when he struck out 15 Pittsburgh Pirates batters in a home start that helped to catapult him to his second NL Cy Young Award in 2009.

Jason Schmidt recorded a franchise-record 16 strikeouts in an unforgettable start June 6, 2006, in which he had to fan Miguel Cabrera, Josh Willingham and Jeremy Hermida to strand two runners in scoring position and preserve a 2-1 victory. The only other three Giants with a 15-strikeout game are all Hall of Famers: Gaylord Perry, Carl Hubbell and Christy Mathewson.

It wasn’t lost on Snell: The last three Giants to strike out 15 are all Washingtonians.

“I like to hear a Washington name,” Snell said. “So, cool, yeah. Go Tim.”

Will Snell stay or go? It’s becoming a fascinating conundrum for the Giants, who finally have the second-half rotation they envisioned when they signed the left-hander to a two-year, $62 million contract at the tail end of spring training.

As far as the trade market goes, it matters little that Snell missed so much of the season with a recurring groin injury or that his absence was one of the reasons the Giants have failed to bank more wins to solidify their contending status. All that matters to scouts and rival executives is what Snell looks like now, and that is the pitcher who won the NL Cy Young Award last season. He has a 0.75 ERA in four starts since returning from the injured list. He has 30 strikeouts and has allowed just eight hits in 24 innings over that span.

On one hand, the more dominant Snell appears, the more the Giants might be able to fetch for him ahead of Tuesday’s deadline. On the other hand, the more the Giants consider a rotation with a resurgent Snell and a healthy Ray to supplement Logan Webb, Kyle Harrison, and likely Alex Cobb within a week’s time if he can overcome a blister issue, the more they might convince themselves to ride it out.

But Snell’s dominance will give the Giants one more factor to consider: If he pitches anywhere near this level over the final two months, he is certain to opt out of a $30 million salary for next season. If the Giants keep Snell and fail to make the playoffs, they’ll have to be prepared for the possibility of losing him without any chance at draft compensation. And that might be an especially bitter result after the organization gave up a draft pick to sign him.

There’s little doubt the Giants could move Snell and recoup the draft cost of acquiring him, and then some. If the Giants lean hard into sell mode, they could even package Snell with players like Michael Conforto and Taylor Rogers to create a jumbo package that might net them something better than a volume of B-level prospects and teenage lottery tickets.

Because it’ll be such a significant crossroads for the franchise, it probably won’t be entirely Zaidi’s call. And it wouldn’t be in keeping with past precedent for Giants ownership to punt on third down. This is a group that usually goes for it on fourth down, too.

Players within the Giants clubhouse, speaking on background, had little idea of what the front office would do. Melvin sought to minimize any distraction or uncertainty prior to Friday’s series opener, calling a meeting to tell the players to focus on the game in front of them. One thing was for certain: losing this home series against the Rockies would result in everyone potentially getting strewn across the lawn.

“Don’t worry about what’s behind us or what’s going forward,” Melvin said. “Let’s just do our best to win a potential game. Don’t look at the standings or our record. Let’s just go out there with the intent on winning a game.”

They nearly lost despite Snell’s dominance. He’s still winless as a Giant because Ryan Walker served up a tying home run to Michael Toglia in the seventh inning. It took a missed catch error at first base, a hit batter and Patrick Bailey’s two-run double in the bottom of the inning to put the Giants back in front. Mike Yastrzemski, who tripled in both games, drove in a run in the first inning of Game 2 and added a sacrifice fly to provide an early lead that Birdsong and four relievers did not relinquish.

“I’m not left-handed and I’m not Blake Snell obviously,” Birdsong said. “But I still have a curveball and that’s what they’ve struggled with the last couple outings.”

Although it’s the rebuilt rotation that fuels any remaining hope for the Giants down the stretch, it’s not all bleak on the hitting side. Tyler Fitzgerald smacked a solo homer in the eighth inning of Game 2 to extend an 11-game hitting streak. He’s the first Giant to hit eight homers over a 10-game span since Barry Bonds in 2004.

Melvin was able to space out his relief work over Saturday’s twin bill, which will be important on Sunday when the team sends flagging right-hander Jordan Hicks to the mound. It’ll be the last chance for the players to send a message to the front office. The team has a day off Monday and the trade deadline will arrive several hours before Ray would take the mound at home Tuesday night against the Oakland A’s.

It’ll be up to Zaidi to figure out what it means that two Giants starters racked up 23 strikeouts in 11 innings Saturday — and whether he discounts that performance because it came against the Rockies, who might as well wear Washington Generals uniforms when they play in San Francisco. Colorado is 0-6 at the Giants’ ballpark this season and 5-26 since 2021.

A loss on Sunday might cue Willie Nelson (or Don Meredith). Or it might inspire Zaidi to sing a different tune.

“We’ve been waiting for this whole starting pitching thing for awhile,” Melvin said. “We put ourselves in a hole but hopefully we can take something from these first three games, and have a good game tomorrow, then the off day, and we’re looking at Robbie again and hopefully Alex soon after that.

“It’s a pretty good starting rotation. It’s a little bit late coming together but still, we have our hopes of doing well here.”

(Top photo of Blake Snell, taken with a slow shutter speed: Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)

Andrew Baggarly is a senior writer for The Athletic and covers the San Francisco Giants. He has covered Major League Baseball for more than two decades, including the Giants since 2004 for the Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News and Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. He is the author of two books that document the most successful era in franchise history: “A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants” and “Giant Splash: Bondsian Blasts, World Series Parades and Other Thrilling Moments By the Bay.” Follow Andrew on Twitter @extrabaggs