SAN DIEGO — The Blake Snell the San Diego Padres invested in showed up at Petco Park on Friday night.
The left-hander pitched seven shutout innings, and the Padres beat the New York Mets, 2-0.
Snell did not allow a hit until Francisco Lindor’s single leading off the seventh inning. That hit resulted in Lindor sliding into third base after the ball skipped past left fielder Tommy Pham.
It was the third time in his career Snell lost a no-hitter on the first batter of the seventh inning.
More importantly for the Padres, Snell stomped off the mound jabbing his arms through the air and yelling after his 101st pitch completed the seventh inning with his 10th strikeout. He had stranded Lindor by getting a strikeout, a pop fly and another strikeout.
The Mets finished with three hits, the other two yielded by Mark Melancon in the ninth inning en route to earning his major league-leading 19th save.
Snell completed seven innings for the first time in 43 regular season starts. The 2018 American League Cy Young award winner, acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in a December trade, had gone six innings once in his first 11 starts with the Padres and hadn’t made it through four innings in either of his previous two starts.
While the Padres started the lefty they got this offseason to help make them a championship contender, the Mets started the lefty the Padres got rid of this offseason.
Manny Machado’s 391-foot line drive to the second deck of seats beyond left field was the only damage done off Joey Lucchesi, who led the Padres with 58 starts from 2018-20. He was part of a three-team trade in January in which the Padres got Joe Musgrove from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Reliever Jacob Barnes replaced Lucchesi with two outs in the fifth with runners on second and third and got Pham on a comebacker to the mound.
Machado also “drove in” the Padres’ other run, drawing a bases-loaded walk against Jeurys Familia in the seventh inning.
Snell, who carried a 5.55 ERA into Friday, retired 14 straight to start the game before issuing a walk.
He had not previously made it through three innings without allowing a baserunner this season. Friday was just the second time he made it through the first three innings without allowing a run.
But he was working fast and throwing fast Friday.
He was still consistently above 96 mph and hit 98 mph in the fifth inning. He averages 95.4 mph on his fastball this season and has consistently reached 97, but he seemed to consistently have an extra gear Friday.
Snell, facing a team that entered the game seeing a major league-low 3.76 pitches per plate appearances, went to three balls in a count just six times. In his previous start, Sunday in Houston, he went to three balls seven times in three innings.
