TAMPA, Fla. — Blake Snell returned to the major leagues – just not in a major-league stadium.
In his first start in four months, Snell gave up two home runs to Yandy Diaz – both boosted by the favorable setting at Steinbrenner Field – and the Dodgers went on to lose to the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0 on Saturday afternoon.
The Dodgers were unable to take advantage of the hitter-friendly spring home of the New York Yankees, summer home of the Gulf Coast League’s Tampa Tarpons and the temporary home of the displaced Rays. The Dodgers managed just six hits in the loss.
The first batter Snell faced in the big leagues since April 2, Diaz swung at his fifth pitch, a 3-and-1 fastball down and in, and sliced it in the air to right field. The consensus developed over the Rays’ season at Steinbrenner Field is that the ball carries to right field.
And it did. Diaz’s fly ball left his bat at 93.5 mph – not even hard enough to qualify as a “hard-hit ball” by Statcast standards (that starts at 95 mph) – and it traveled just 326 feet. That was enough to land in the first row of seats for a solo home run – though Statcast measurement said it would not have been a home run in any other MLB stadium.
Snell struck out five of the next eight batters. When Diaz came up again in the third inning, he repeated the feat. This time, with a runner on first, he got a 1-and-1 fastball at the top of the zone and lofted it in the same direction.
This drive left the bat even more softly than the first (92.2 mph) but traveled farther (341 feet). Statcast estimated it would have cleared the right-field fence in two other stadiums – Yankee Stadium and Daikin Park in Houston.
Other than his encounters with Diaz – he also singled in the fifth inning – Snell was good in his return to the Dodgers. He gave up just two hits to non-Diaz batters, walked none and struck out eight. He held his velocity, averaging 95.2 mph on 39 four-seam fastballs in his five innings and got 19 swings-and-misses – seven on his changeup, six on his fastball, five on his slider and one on a curveball.
The Dodgers’ offense offered little support. They didn’t get a runner past first base until the sixth inning when Miguel Rojas bunted his way on and singles from Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman loaded the bases with one out.
Teoscar Hernandez grounded into a double play to end that and the Dodgers didn’t have another baserunner in the game. Dodgers hitters struck out 11 times in the game and 26 in the first two games of this series, continuing a trend that dragged down the offense during the month of July. The Dodgers have struck out 252 times in their past 26 games. Not coincidentally, they have averaged just 3.69 runs per game in that time.
Ohtani struck out three of those times and has batted just .202 (22 for 109) with 41 strikeouts over his past 28 games.
