Command continues to elude Rays’ Snell

ST. PETERSBURG — To find Rays left-hander Blake Snell’s last efficient outing, the calendar has to flip back a full month to when the rookie, who entered the season as one of baseball’s top prospects, took the mound in Oakland. His July 24 start was the last time Snell lasted more than 5 1/3 innings. He hasn’t been bad in his five starts since, but a glaring flaw has materialized.

Three of Snell’s last five outings have gone either five or 5 1/3. One was a 1 2/3-inning dud. Monday’s outing against the Red Sox fell in the middle. The lefty went 3 2/3 as a 40-pitch fourth derailed what had been a promising start. Snell needed 94 pitches to make it through his abbreviated start while allowing two runs, four hits and five walks in Tampa Bay’s 6-2 loss to Boston at Tropicana Field.

“Command, attacking, getting ahead, a whole lot,” Snell said, rattling off everything that went wrong during his costly fourth frame. “It’s definitely something I need to learn from, get better at.”

Snell’s cruised through the first three innings, even if they weren’t particularly efficient. He allowed one hit in the first, one walk in the …

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