SAN DIEGO — Again, Blake Snell did not get much help.
At least this time, it was enough.
Just enough.
Snell struck out 12 over six dominant innings against the team that traded him away and a fifth-inning bunt derby accounted for all of the Padres’ offense in a 2-0 win over Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 43,180 at Petco Park.
To be clear, the Padres weren’t trying to give away all of their outs in the fifth.
Ha-Seong Kim, for instance, was bunting for a base hit when he squared to catch third baseman Isaac Paredes deep beyond the bag.
Trent Grisham was trying to move a runner over when he popped up a bunt and found his way on first base when the ball landed in no-man’s land behind the mound.
Like Kim, Fernando Tatis Jr. was bunting for a base hit but settled for a sacrifice when former Padres catcher Francisco Mejia — part of the return in the deal that sent Snell to Tampa before the 2021 season — corralled it and threw to first to nab Tatis.
Juan Soto followed with a sacrifice fly to center, Grisham advanced to third on the play and the Padres had a 2-0 lead when Paredes, trying to rush the throw on Manny Machado’s ensuing swinging bunt, could not get the ball out of his glove.
The most unconventional of rallies expected from a $247 million payroll got the Padres off the hook of another poor showing with runners in scoring position as they went 1 for 7 in that situation, including going down in order after Tatis led off the game with a double off Paredes’ glove at third base.
The Padres had a two-run lead on Sunday at Coors Field when a depleted bullpen could not take the baton cleanly after a 108-mph comebacker knocked Snell from the game.
This time Steven Wilson struck out two in the seventh, Nick Martinez negotiated an uneventful eighth and closer Josh Hader threw a scoreless ninth for his 17th save.
Again featuring his curveball over his wandering slider, Snell was on the wilder side on Sunday, walking three and hitting a batter. But he allowed only two hits in extending a current scoreless streak to 12 innings and a dominant stretch in which he has allowed two earned runs over his last five starts (30 IP, 0.60 ERA).
Snell struck out every batter in the lineup at least once in a second straight start, including the first four batters he faced. He did not allow a hit until Yandy Diaz’s two-out double in the third, stranded the two walks he issued in the fourth with a punchout Manuel Margot and stranded the walk and hit batter in the fifth with two more punchouts.
