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Blake Snell shelled: Rays lefty lasts just 1/3 an inning against Yankees in his shortest major league start

Reigning Cy Young award winner charged with six runs.
 
Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash, right, pulls starting pitcher Blake Snell from the game during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, Wednesday, June 19, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash, right, pulls starting pitcher Blake Snell from the game during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, Wednesday, June 19, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Published June 19, 2019|Updated June 19, 2019

NEW YORK -- Blake Snell retired just one hitter against the New York Yankees on Wednesday night, handing the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner his shortest start of his major league career.

The game snowballed quickly on Snell. He trailed 3-0 three batters into the game when Gary Sanchez hit a three-run opposite field homer following D.J. LeMahieu's infield single and Luke Voit's walk.

He faced just seven batters -- six of them reaching base -- before Rays manager Kevin Cash removed him from the game.

Snell left the game after walking the bases loaded, and reliever Colin Poche allowed three more runs to score. All six runs were charged to Snell, the second time in four starts that he's allowed six runs. He allowed six in a 4 1/3-inning outing in Detroit on June 4.

In Snell's previous 88 big league starts, he had never failed to get out of the first inning.

Snell walked four of the seven batters he faced, but he wasn’t overly wild, just missing the strike zone on several pitches, most of them offspeed deliveries

His afternoon began when third baseman Daniel Robertson couldn't come up with a slow roller to third off the bat of LeMahieu. Snell got ahead of Voit 0-2, but walked him on a pitch that just missed high.

Snell fell behind Sanchez 3-0, then left a changeup up on a 3-1 count that Sanchez hit the other way over the right-field fence.

Snell was ahead of Edwin Encarnacion 0-2, but couldn't get him out on three straight curveballs and missed just high with a pair of changeups to walk him.

After inducing a fielder’s choice ground out from Aaron Hicks, Snell had two-strike counts on both Gleyber Torres and Cameron Maybin, but buried a curveball in the first for ball four to Torres and missed on a full-count changeup to Maybin.

Of the 39 pitches Snell threw on Wednesday, 24 were offspeed.

Poche entered the game an hit Gio Urshela on the left foot with a full count, forcing a run in with the bases loaded, and LeMahieu hit a two-run single to give the Yankees a 6-0 lead.

Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieInTheYard.