Before his no-hitter, Snell had never pitched in the ninth

About nine months ago, Blake Snell was soaring.

The left-hander had just been named the National League Cy Young Award winner after a stellar season with the San Diego Padres, making him the seventh pitcher ever to win the award in both leagues. He was about to hit free agency after one of the most dominant and consistent years of his career at a moment when elite starting pitching was more coveted than ever. If someone had said then that Snell would throw a no-hitter as the new ace of the San Francisco Giants nine months later, the prognosis would have made as much sense as anything.

But no elite pitcher of this generation complicates dominance quite like Snell, for whom the past nine months ended up materializing as some of the more tense and trying of his career.