Dodgers burned by Yandy-Ray relationship

Snell struck out 8 and walked none in his return for Dodgers, but was felled by two fly balls that landed over the right field wall in Tampa

Blake Snell was sharp in his first major league start in four months, but he was felled by two well-placed fly balls to right field by Yandy Díaz in the Dodgers’ 4-0 loss to the Rays on Saturday afternoon at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

Snell, who was activated off the injured list on Saturday morning after missing 102 games with left shoulder inflammation, induced 19 swinging strikes in his five innings, struck out eight of his 20 batters faced and walked none, just the 19th time in 214 career starts that he lasted at least five innings and didn’t issue a free pass.

But he got burned on a pair of fly balls off the bat of Díaz, going the other way to right field for home runs. Díaz led off the game with a solo home run, then two batters after a Taylor Walls single in the third inning hit another one.

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Given the exit velocity, launch angle, and bat speed, Statcast rated the expected batting average on the first home run as .170, with .060 on the second.

“Those are flyouts to right field anywhere else,” analyst Jessica Mendoza said on the SportsNet LA broadcast after the second Díaz home run.

Mendoza was close. The first home run was deemed by Statcast to not have been a home run in the other 29 MLB parks. Díaz’s second home run would have been a home run in three of 30 parks, along with Houston and Yankee Stadium.

But this game was at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, and both teams played under the same rules.

By contrast, Mookie Betts’ drive off Rays starter Drew Rasmussen’s last pitch was similar to both Díaz home runs, 93 mph off the bat with a 32-degree launch angle, .140 expected batting average, a home run in two of 30 parks. The ball went 361 feet — longer than the 326 and 341 for Díaz’s home runs — but was hit to a deeper left field (not right field) and was caught on the warning track instead of a two-run home run.

The Dodgers didn’t get much off Rasmussen, only four hits in his 5⅓ innings, with six strikeouts and no walks. Their best scoring chance came in that sixth inning. After Miguel Rojas opened the frame with a bunt single off Rasmussen, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman singled off Garrett Cleavinger to load the bases. But Teoscar Hernández grounded into a double play to extinguish the threat.

Opposing starting pitchers on this road trip have a 32.6-percent strikeout rate against the Dodgers. Those starters also have a 4.15 ERA in 43⅓ innings so the Dodgers haven’t been completely shut down, with Rasmussen the only opposing starter on the trip to allow fewer than two runs.

Immediately after the Dodgers tried to string hits together but failed to score a run, the Rays went for the more direct rout, with Junior Caminero greeting Jack Dreyer in the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run to center field to widen Tampa Bay’s advantage. Dreyer has allowed only two home runs in 221 batters faced this season.

Díaz also singled off Snell, giving him three hits in three at-bats against the left-hander. But the Dodgers finally got Díaz out by deploying their own Díaz — Alexis — with a seventh-inning strikeout.

Neither team walked on Saturday, just the fourth MLB game this season without a free pass, joining Astros at Twins on April 3, Pirates at Mariners on July 6, and Brewers at Marlins also on July 6.

Saturday particulars

Home runs: Yandy Díaz 2 (20), Junior Caminero (28)

WP — Drew Rasmussen (9-5): 5⅓ IP, 4 hits, 6 strikeouts

LP — Blake Snell (1-1): 5 IP, 5 hits, 3 runs, 8 strikeouts

Up next

The Dodgers end the minor-league-park portion of their 2025 schedule on Sunday morning, with an even earlier start for the series finale (9:10 a.m. PT, SportsNet LA). Yoshinobu Yamamoto is on the mound for two of the three earliest start times (in the Pacific time zone) of the season for the Dodgers, along with opening day in Tokyo. Joe Boyle starts for Tampa Bay.