How ump's missed calls impacted Snell in his Giants debut

How ump's missed calls impacted Snell in his Giants debut originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Blake Snell's highly anticipated Giants debut was spoiled in Monday night's ugly 8-1 loss to the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park.

The next day's umpire scorecard showed just how much some of Chris Guccione's most impactful missed calls affected Snell's three-inning outing.

While the blown calls only gave San Francisco +0.26 runs in a seven-run defeat, Snell's first showing in orange and black could have looked much different.

The first missed call came in the first inning on a 1-2 count with two outs and a runner on second base, when Snell delivered a 96-mph four-seam fastball to Joey Gallo -- nearly the same pitch as the prior one that got the Nationals slugger swinging. Guccione incorrectly called it a ball, but the top of the inning should have ended there.

Not much damage was done, however, as Gallo still struck out swinging. But it took three more pitches from Snell than it should have.

Guccione's next missed call came during the first at-bat of the next inning. On a 2-0 count with zero outs and no runners on base, Snell threw an 85-mph changeup that should have been strike one to Joey Meneses but incorrectly was called a ball.

Snell escaped adversity again, though, and Meneses wound up striking out swinging three pitches later. But the Nationals scored three runs in the inning and eventually won 8-1 in the opener of the three-game series.

The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, who lasted just three innings Monday, was on a pitch count and finished at 72. He struck out five but gave up three runs on three hits over three innings in the loss.

"There’s a lot going through my head right now, but I’ll just say I was pretty amped up and I was trying to nitpick the zone too much," Snell said postgame. “I made the bullpen have to cover a lot of innings that they shouldn’t have had to cover.”

"At least he's off and running," Giants manager Bob Melvin said of Snell. "Not a great game for us all the way around."

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