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For seven innings, the Diamondbacks had no answers against San Diego Padres left-hander Blake Snell. He caught them off guard with his curveball, then locked them up on sliders. He pumped mid-90s fastballs past them. The best they could say was they drove up his pitch count, forcing him out of the game early.
That, of course, is not saying much, not on a night when Snell fired seven innings of no-hit ball before exiting after 107 pitches. The Diamondbacks finished with just three hits and lost, 3-0, at Chase Field.
It’s not like their struggles against Snell were anything out of ordinary. He has started five times against the Diamondbacks in his career, four of those coming this season. In those five starts, he has posted thoroughly dominant numbers: 29? innings, 13 hits, nine walks, 46 strikeouts. His career ERA against the Diamondbacks is 0.61.
“We haven’t figured him out,” Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed said. “Obviously, he’s got a good track record of being a really good pitcher. I don’t think his numbers this year are as good as he has been in the past. He’s pitched really well against us. We’re not going to see him again this year, I don’t think, but if we see him again in the future, we’re going to have to come up with a better game plan.”
The Diamondbacks did not get their first hit of the game until David Peralta dumped a pinch-hit single into shallow left field off reliever Pierce Johnson with one out in the eighth. The Diamondbacks added two more hits, both singles, in the ninth off closer Mark Melancon.
Not only did Snell not allow a hit, the Diamondbacks didn’t come particularly close to getting one off him. They hit only two balls in the air at harder than 95 mph, both coming off the bat of Ketel Marte. Both were routine fly outs.
Snell finished having faced just two batters over the minimum — he walked two — in his seven innings of work. He struck out 10.
Snell said he agreed with Padres manager Jayce Tingler’s decision to take him out of the game.
“There’s a lot of things I need to do better to allow myself the opportunity to get to the ninth and be able to finish it,” Snell said. “One hundred seven pitches through seven, it’s going to be pretty tough to say ‘Let’s go’ unless we’re at the end of the season and it’s all or nothing.”
Ahmed said Snell threw them more curveballs than they were expecting, mixing between that and his slider while averaging 95.6 mph on his fastball.
“The offspeed is obviously kind of plus and elite and he was able to throw that for strikes and for what looked like strikes and finished as balls,” Ahmed said. “When you’ve got 96-98 (mph) with the high release and angle and you throw your offspeed pitches extremely well like he did tonight, it was a tough night for us.”
The loss was the Diamondbacks’ fifth in a row and ninth in their past 12 games. They dropped to 44-90, putting them on pace for 109 losses.
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