Game Recap: Houston 6, Tampa Bay 2 - Snell Hurt in Loss to Astros

The game after losing by way of a walk-off homer is always an opportunity. It's an opportunity to bounce back, trot your hot rod young pitcher out to the mound and forget about what happened the night before. The Rays did none of those things on Saturday.

The only offense produced all night was off the bat of Bobby Wilson in the top of the 5th. Down 5-0 with Corey Dickerson on first base, Bobby turned Dallas Keuchel's 0-1 pitch into a souvenir for the fans in left field (although the ball did ultimately bounce back onto the field) to trim the score to 5-2. The only Tampa Bay runs on the day.

Blake Snell struggled his entire limited appearance. Before being pulled in the 4th inning due to an injury that I'll discuss shortly, he gave up 9 hits and 5 runs, 4 of which were earned.

Snell got into a bit of trouble in the first after a George Springer single and a wild pitch to move him into scoring position. Luckily, Souza would catch Jose Altuve's fly out in right and gun down Springer who had tagged up from second base. Springer popped off the bag at some point in his slide and Longo's glove and ball were on him at the time, allowing Snell to escape the jam.

He wouldn't be so lucky in the 2nd inning, as snell gave up three straight doubles to Carlos Correa, Evan Gattis and Yulieski Gurriel (his first MLB XBH) to put the Astros up 2-0.

The damage didn't stop there. In the 3rd, Snell gave up a single to George Springer before tossing a fastball to Alex Bregman that he deposited in the left field seats to push Houston's lead to 4-0.

In the bottom of the 4th, Marwin Gonzalez tapped a hard grounder back to Snell that deflected off of his lower left leg. Bobby Wilson fielded the deflection but launched his throw into right field instead of first base. After testing it a couple of times, the Rays training staff remained unconvinced and pulled Snell from the game before he could record an out in the 4th.

A squad of Farquhar, Cedeno Jepsen and Romero took over for Snell. Jepson's 7th inning was no gem, as he gave up three walks (one intentional), one single and an RBI double. The final score was Astros 6, Rays 2.

I can't wrap up this recap without again giving props to Tim Beckham for another awesome day. TBex went 3-4 with a double on the day, but the bats around him stayed quiet.

Chris Archer takes the mound for Sunday's matinee against Doug Fister.