SAN FRANCISCO — The reigning National League Cy Young winner and favorite to win the distinction this year clashed on a chilly night at Oracle Park
The stars aligned for a pitchers’ duel, and Chris Sale and Blake Snell created a constellation above the China Basin. And they did it in a playoff atmosphere against the Braves, who entered one-and-a-half games in front of the Giants in the wild card race.
“It felt a little different, yeah,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said postgame. “Especially with the quality of the pitching. It felt like every at-bat, every pitch, there was something riding on it.”
Snell (6 ⅓ IP, 2H, 3BB, 11 K) no-hit the Braves for six innings and logged his third double-digit strikeout game as a Giant. Sale never flirted with a no-no, but lasted longer than Snell struck out one more batter than the Giants lefty. Snell and Sale combined to punch out 23 batters, marking the first time at Oracle Park since 2010 in which both starters registered double-digit strikeouts.
After the dominant starters were done, the Braves nudged themselves ahead of the Giants, scoring the automatic runner in the 10th inning to defeat San Francisco, 1-0. To open a critical series, the Giants (61-60) and Braves combined for 33 total strikeouts, with the difference being Travis d’Arnaud’s game-winning sacrifice fly.
The Giants’ defense was cleaner, they were better in the running game and they pitched just as well as Atlanta, but they still lost to start a series that could have wild-card ramifications based on how jumbled the middle of the National League standings are.
“We played a really good game on both ends,” Snell said postgame. “Tip your cap, get ready for tomorrow.”
Both Snell and Sale fanned six batters through the first four innings. Snell put just two base runners on in that span, retiring every other hitter besides walking Jorge Soler twice.
The best scoring chance either team had until the starters’ eventual departures was in the first inning, when the Giants put runners on the corners with no outs after Ramon Laureano overran a shallow fly and Mark Canha lined a single to center. But Sale easily danced out of the jam, establishing a rhythm.
“Based on the pitching against us, you just try fighting and scratching a run out,” Melvin said. “Didn’t happen early, couldn’t push one across late.”
Snell tossed his first career no-hitter two weeks ago, but was never quite in range of going the distance on Monday. Even though he didn’t surrender a hit until Marcell Ozuna’s double in the seventh, he didn’t have enough quick innings to keep his pitch count low anyway.
But the southpaw certainly had his best stuff. After walking Soler — the former Giants marquee signing who got shipped to Atlanta at the deadline — a second time, Snell retired seven straight. In the fifth, he struck out the side, freezing Adam Duvall on a curveball down the middle to end the frame.
That was part of one of two separate sequences in which Snell fanned four Braves in a row. After dealing with injuries in the first half of the season, Snell said he’s feeling stronger with every outing; over his past four starts, he has struck out 45 batters.
Snell and Sale made base runners a premium. For one reason or another, the Giants couldn’t reach. Marco Luciano stopped running down the line on a sharply hit grounder to third to lead off the fifth, ultimately getting thrown out by a double-bouncer. To end that inning, Casey Schmitt scorched a line drive back up the middle, but Sale somehow snared the 104-mph comebacker on the mound.
Snell didn’t even allow hard contact like that. With his 98th pitch, a curveball in the dirt, Snell ended the sixth inning with his 10th strikeout of the game.
The Giants had no one up in the bullpen as Snell trotted out for the seventh inning. He wanted to stay in the game, Melvin said. But moments later, Randy Rodriguez started warming up as Ozuna slid into second base with Atlanta’s first hit.
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Snell — the most dominant pitcher in MLB over the past month — departed after fanning Orlando Arcia on a high fastball, inspiring a bat-slam from the hitter and a standing ovation from the Oracle Park crowd. Rodriguez then finished the inning with back-to-back strikeouts, stranding the pair Snell left him.
Sale, who didn’t walk a batter, was slightly more efficient than Snell despite giving up one more hit. He surpassed Snell’s strikeout total by fanning Matt Chapman and Jerar Encarnacion while getting through the seventh.
Before Monday night, Oracle Park hadn’t hosted a pitchers’ duel quite like this since Tim Lincecum and Cole Hamels struck out 22 total batters on April 28, 2010.
Each team’s relievers picked up where Sale and Snell left off, sending the game into extras with a total of 30 strikeouts — 15 apiece.
One run in the top of the 10th, on a slicing single and sacrifice fly to score the automatic runner, put the Braves ahead for good. In a historic pitchers’ duel, an unearned run was the game-winner.
