Snell beats Cardinals with Cy Young stuff on display

ST. LOUIS -- Their season may feel like it's spiraling, but the Padres still get to hand the ball to Blake Snell every fifth day. Whether Snell can pitch San Diego back into the playoff picture remains to be seen, but it sure looks like he’s pitching himself toward some serious individual hardware.

Snell furthered his Cy Young case on Monday night in St. Louis with seven scoreless innings in the Padres’ 4-1 victory over the Cardinals in the series opener at Busch Stadium. He wasn’t at his absolute best, as he issued five walks. But he worked his way out of trouble all night -- as he has all season, really -- and pitched San Diego to a win it desperately needed after three straight losses in Milwaukee over the weekend.

“He was really good, and the fact that he went seven was big for us today, too,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin. “He threw over 100 pitches, knew we needed it today and was up for it.”

In the process, Snell lowered his Major League-best ERA to 2.60, which would be the lowest mark by a San Diego starter in a full 162-game season since Jake Peavy’s 2.54 mark in 2007. Naturally, Peavy’s ‘07 season remains the last time a Padres pitcher won a Cy Young Award.

In the meantime, D-backs starter Zac Gallen -- perhaps Snell’s primary competitor for the Award -- was roughed up, allowing six runs over 5 1/3 innings at Dodger Stadium as his ERA ballooned to 3.32.

Make no mistake, Snell would happily trade places with Gallen, whose D-backs currently hold the final Wild Card spot in the NL. Snell has been evasive when asked about the possibility of a second Cy Young Award, preferring to keep his focus rooted in the present.

“Awards only matter if we win,” Snell said earlier this month. “If we don’t win, I don’t put any thought until the season’s over. Right now, I’m just trying to pitch as good as I can, get us wins, get us to the postseason. From there, when the season ends, we can think about all that. But right now, we need to win every game.”

Indeed, they do. The Padres trail the D-backs by seven games in the NL Wild Card race with only 30 left to play.

“We’ve got to put it together,” Snell said. “That’s something that I know we can definitely do. We just haven’t been doing it. I’m really hoping that we can win here [in St. Louis], get back home in front of our fans and get something going.”

Snell is doing his part. His ERA leads the Majors, and he’s also tops in the NL in batting average against (.192) and hits per nine innings (6.16), while sitting second with 193 strikeouts.

Strangely enough, Snell also leads the Majors with 85 walks -- and he has the chance to make a strange bit of history if those trends hold up. No pitcher has ever led the Majors in walks and ERA in the same season.

Monday night offered the perfect example of why Snell just might be able to pull it off. He walked two in the first, then got Nolan Arenado to bounce into an inning-ending double play. He walked two more in the fourth, loading the bases with one out. Then, he escaped with a pair of key strikeouts.

“That’s what he does,” Melvin said. “He’s a strikeout waiting to happen. I don’t think he ever really panics in those situations. He gets a lot of swing-and-miss. Every time we see him in those situations, he’s probably as good as you get about getting that strikeout with less than two outs.”

The case against Snell winning the Cy Young is largely theoretical. His peripheral numbers suggest that he should be allowing more runs than he does, because he walks so many hitters. His 3.74 FIP is high for a Cy Young candidate.

But the reality is: Snell doesn’t allow those theoretical runs. He’s pitched out of those jams all season, and his teammates and manager are adamant that it’s no fluke.

“I think there’s an understanding in making big pitches,” said Snell, who took home the 2018 AL Cy Young Award with Tampa Bay.

In Major League history, only Gaylord Perry, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay and Max Scherzer have won Cy Young Awards in both leagues.

Snell just might be lining himself up to join that very exclusive list.