Marc Topkin’s takeaways from Rays 6-4 Friday loss to Red Sox

• Blake Snell was supposed to start Friday until his unfortunate and painful bathroom break on Sunday. While the Rays’ staff covered the innings for him well, it also was a reminder of how much better position the Rays could have been in had he not broken a toe.

• It was nice to see and hear some life at Tropicana Field after three quiet and somewhat empty nights. The paid attendance was announced at 21,343, and it seemed pretty close — impressive given the weather — and somewhat evenly split between red and blue states.

• The Rays showed a lot of confidence in Daniel Robertson — his 0-for-21 stretched back more than a week — by letting him swing away with two on and no out in the sixth. And he rewarded them, and resurrected himself, by coming through with a two-run double that briefly tied the score.