San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb may have accidentally helped his team’s archrivals in their pursuit of back-to-back titles.
Blake Snell spent the 2024 season with the Giants before he signed a five-year, $182 million deal with the Dodgers ahead of this season. That deal is paying off for Los Angeles in the playoffs, as the left-hander has won all three of his starts so far and has not allowed a run over 14 innings in his past two outings, including an eight-inning scoreless effort against the Brewers on Monday night in Game 1 of the NLCS.
Before Game 2 on Tuesday, Snell joined the TNT Sports pregame show for an interview and was asked about his career journey to this point. When Snell got to his year with the Giants, he heaped praise Webb’s way.
“Going to San Francisco, that’s where I learned how to pitch,” Snell said. “I was around Logan Webb, and man, he’s going seven innings — it’s like, every game he’s going seven innings.”
Snell said when he asked Webb how he was able to consistently pitch deep into games, Webb offered him some advice on how to attack hitters.
“He’s like, ‘Man, I’m just in the [strike] zone. You’re just not in the zone enough,’” Snell said of Webb’s counsel. “‘You strike too many people out. You’ve got to get in the zone more. You’ll still get strikeouts, but get in the zone. And by doing that, you’re going to get six, seven, eight [innings]. You’re going to be able to go deeper in the game.’
“That year in San Fran was so big for me, just being around Logan and really learning how to pitch.”
Snell has consistently been one of baseball’s nastiest starting pitchers in his career — he won two Cy Young awards before coming to San Francisco in 2024, after all — but the left-hander had a reputation of not having the stamina to pitch late into games. He had never pitched in the ninth inning of any of his starts heading into 2024 and was infamously pulled in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the 2020 World Series after throwing just 73 pitches (the Rays immediately gave up the lead and lost the game and the series to … the Dodgers).
Snell’s first half-season with the Giants was rather rough, but he pitched like a superstar in the second half and threw his first complete game of his career as a no-hitter in Cincinnati in August. Snell still struck out 11 that night but needed only 114 pitches to throw all nine innings. He clearly knew the knocks against him, too.
“They can’t say it anymore,” Snell said after the game. “Complete game, shutout, no-hitter. Leave me alone. ‘He doesn’t go into the ninth. He doesn’t go into the eighth.’ … Just did it. Leave me alone.”
Snell declined a player option with the Giants and went south to the Dodgers last offseason. (The contract details mean the Giants will end up paying Snell more money in 2026 than the Dodgers will.) He once again had the regular season derailed by injuries, missing most of the first four months with shoulder inflammation. Since returning in August, though, Snell has shown that pitching ability Webb taught him, going at least six innings in five of his nine starts, including pitching seven innings twice. In three postseason starts for the Dodgers, Snell has averaged seven innings.
Giants fans don’t need any new reasons to root against the Dodgers this postseason. But Snell crediting the Giants for helping him pitch better for the Dodgers, all while the Giants continue to flail in mediocrity, is only going to make it even more bitter if he leads Los Angeles to another title.
