Yandy Diaz, Tampa Bay Rays Spoil Return to the Mound For Their Former Staff Ace

TAMPA, Fla. — In storybook fashion, Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Blake Snell had his first MLB start in four months spoiled by his former team, the Tampa Bay Rays.

Snell returned from the shoulder inflammation that has kept him off the mound for the Dodgers since April 2, only to get attacked by the Rays’ offense. He gave up two home runs to an old ally, designated hitter Yandy Diaz.

The final pitching line for Snell: five innings, five hits, three runs, eight strikeouts, no walks. He fell to 1-1 on the season with a 3.21 ERA.

'Bad luck'

Diaz took Snell to the short right-field wall in Steinbrenner Field in consecutive at-bats with a solo home run in the first inning and a two-run shot in the third.

“I thought Blake threw the baseball really well today,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “To be quite frank, he was a victim of this ballpark, and there were a couple of fly balls to right field that just went out.”

“I still felt that he made pitches that he needed to make, and, unfortunately, he got a little bit of bad luck," Roberts continued. "I hope he doesn’t put too much credence in the line score.”

Staying confident

Despite the adversity he faced, the 32-year-old Snell viewed his return through a positive lens.

“I liked that I was in the zone more than I thought I would have been,” Snell said after the game. “Just trying to feel it out again. I liked that I was in the zone, I was confident; I knew what I wanted to do.”

Snell owned the home runs he gave up to his former teammate while maintaining an air of confidence.

“The first homer to Yandy, that was not a good pitch,” Snell added. “On the second homer, I thought that was a really good pitch to him, and it was.”

“Yeah, overall, the curveball will get better. The changeup I was happy with, the slider I was happy with, the fastball command can get better," Snell continued. "Just things I gotta work on.”

The Rays selected Snell with the 52nd pick in the Competitive Balance Round A of the 2011 MLB Draft. He made his major league debut on April 23, 2016. 

From 2016 to 2020, Snell developed into the ace for Tampa Bay, winning the Cy Young Award in 2018 after leading the American League in both wins (21) and earned run average (1.89). In his final year with the Rays, Snell also served as a key starter in the club’s run to the World Series in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

He spent three seasons with the San Diego Padres, winning his second Cy Young Award in 2023 , then one season with the San Francisco Giants before signing a five-year, $182 million deal with Los Angeles in the offseason.