Giants’ Blake Snell reacts to ‘weird’ debut

The San Francisco Giants put together a strong body of work over the offseason, but they waited until right before the start of the 2024 campaign to make their biggest signing of them all in the reigning National League Cy Young winner Blake Snell. After missing virtually all of Spring Training, Snell took a little longer to get himself ready for the season, leading to him making his season debut on Monday against the Washington Nationals.

Hopes were high for Snell in his debut with the Giants, as the Nationals aren’t exactly a playoff contending team. Instead, they made Snell work quite a bit in his first action, as he only lasted three innings while giving up three runs on three hits and two walks, while also striking out five. After the game, Snell labeled the outing as “weird“, saying that there were several different factors that led to his struggles.

“Honestly, it was just weird. I’m facing big league hitters, I was aware of that. I was being more careful than I usually would. Usually, I would just throw it over the plate. Then I was really amped up too. I was really excited to pitch. Bad combination I guess…There’s a lot going through my head right now, but I would just say I was pretty amped up, and I was trying to nitpick the zone too much. I made the bullpen have to cover a lot of innings that they shouldn’t have had to cover.” – Blake Snell, ESPN

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