Snell, Chapman make twin cases for new contracts in win

SAN FRANCISCO -- It remains to be seen whether Blake Snell and Matt Chapman's Giants tenures will stretch beyond this season, but the pair showed why the club should have interest in re-signing them on Friday night.

Snell struck out eight over seven innings of one-run ball, and Chapman delivered a bases-clearing double with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Giants rallied late for a 3-1 win over the National League-worst Marlins at Oracle Park.

After being shut out by the Brewers on Thursday, the Giants were again blanked through the first seven innings and trailed, 1-0, before finally coming alive against reliever Mike Baumann. Jerar Encarnacion led off the eighth with a pinch-hit single, and Mike Yastrzemski and Heliot Ramos drew back-to-back walks to load the bases with one out.

Baumann, who made one appearance for the Giants earlier this year, then struck out Michael Conforto on three pitches before Marlins manager Skip Schumaker opted to bring in George Soriano to face Chapman with two outs. The move backfired, as Chapman lined a two-strike slider into the left-field gap to erase the one-run deficit and put the Giants ahead, 3-1.

“Just trying to battle, trying to put a ball in play, trying to just get a base hit and extend the inning,” Chapman said. “Obviously, he’s got good stuff. As I got deeper into the count, I started seeing more pitches and started getting more comfortable. Luckily, I was able to put a good swing on that last one.”

“Thank God,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We needed a spark like that.”

Chapman’s clutch hit allowed the Giants to avoid a demoralizing loss and climb back to .500 (68-68) with 26 games left to play. San Francisco recorded only two hits over six innings against Miami starter Adam Oller, but the club managed to stay in the game thanks to Snell, who also put up zeros before giving up a one-out RBI single to David Hensley in the seventh.

Hensley’s hit ended Snell’s streak of 30 1/3 innings without allowing a run at home, the longest stretch by a Giant in Oracle Park history (since 2000).

“Obviously, we’d like to score some runs early and be able to give our pitchers the lead,” Chapman said. “Blake kept us in that ballgame all day. That was huge for us. Our pitching has been really solid and keeping us in ballgames. Us being able to pull it out late is huge, but we’d love to score earlier, for sure.”

Snell lasted only three innings in his last start against his hometown Mariners on Aug. 24, when he issued a season-high six walks and gave up two runs despite not allowing a hit, but he rebounded with his eighth quality start in his last nine outings. He incorporated more of his changeup against the Marlins’ right-handed-heavy lineup, throwing the pitch 35% of the time, more than twice his season average of 16%.

“Snell’s changeup was really effective,” Schumaker said. “He had, obviously, 95-98 [mph] at the top of the zone. The curveball is almost unhittable … but I thought the changeup was really effective against our righties.”

Snell and Chapman, who are both represented by Scott Boras, had to wait until March to sign after their markets didn’t materialize as expected last offseason, but both figure to return to the open market after putting together strong seasons for the Giants this year.

Snell, the reigning NL Cy Young winner, logged a 9.51 ERA over his first six starts for San Francisco, but he’s been nearly untouchable since returning from a left groin strain on July 9, recording a 1.30 ERA over his last 10 outings. Given his dominance over the last two months, Snell is all but certain to decline his $30 million player option for 2025 and try to land the long-term deal that eluded him in free agency last winter.

“I don’t think about it,” Snell said. “I’m really big on where I’m at is where I’m at. My feet are here. I’m not going to look at what ifs or what could happen possibly. It doesn’t matter. Right now, I’m here. We need to win. I love this team. That’s all I’m focused on.”

The Giants have shied away from giving out long-term contracts to free-agent pitchers under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, so it’s unclear how aggressively they’d move to try to retain the 31-year-old Snell. They could have better odds of locking up Chapman, who leads the team with 21 home runs and has consistently provided Gold Glove-caliber defense at third base since joining the club on a one-year, $18 million deal with two player options for ‘25 and ‘26.

“He’s a leader,” Snell said. “He loves to be out there every day and plays the game 100 percent every day. You never see him waver, if it’s offense or defense. He’s always locked in and ready to play the game. He’s a guy you should want on your team. He’s unbelievable at third for me and is a leader in the clubhouse, so I can’t say enough about him.”