Tampa Bay Rays: Blake Snell trades baseball for chicken fingers and fries

Even baseball players get hungry during a game. Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell found a creative way to satisfy his hunger.

Thursday night’s game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays was chock-full of action. Toronto plated a pair of runs against Ryne Stanek, the Rays’ “opener“. Tampa Bay responded by scoring eight unanswered runs, and for the majority of the night it appeared as if the lowly Rogers Centre crowd were in store for yet another loss.

But in the bottom of the 9th inning, the Blue Jays’ bats caught on fire, producing seven runs on THREE home runs, including a pair of two-out homers by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Justin Smoak, who completed the comeback with a game-winning, walkoff blast.

Prior to the Blue Jays’ ninth inning theatrics, however, the Rays were enjoying a comfortable lead. So much so that pitcher Blake Snell, who’s scheduled to start Sunday’s contest vs the Blue Jays, decided to play the role of General Manager and execute a trade with a young Rays fan. The fan acquired an authentic Major League Baseball, and in exchange Snell received chicken fingers and fries.

It appears as if the trade worked out for both sides, as the kid got a souvenir from his favourite team while Snell was able to satisfy his mid-game craving. Once Snell got the fan’s Rogers Centre concessions chicken fingers (which are pretty good as far as ballpark chicken fingers go, believe me) he was immediately trounced by his fellow teammates. Hopefully he finished the whole plate, as Snell could use some bulking up to fill in his 6’4″ frame.

While Snell served as the team’s impromptu GM in this baseball-for-chicken finger exchange, he normally acts as the team’s ace, and has been outstanding at that. In 29 starts this season, Snellzilla has a 1.97 ERA with a 0.97 WHIP and 200 strikeouts, and leads the MLB in wins with 20.

Snell’s numbers illustrate how phenomenal he has has been on the mound, and as a result he’s become a serious candidate for the American League Cy Young Award. I’ve already written about how he deserves to win the Cy Young, and other players around the league have voiced their support for Snell’s case, including Chris Archer, Marcus Stroman, and Carlos Gomez.

This is the latest hilarious installment of players snacking on a fan’s food, which has happened more often than you’d think. There are countless instances of players reaching out to fans when they get hungry mid-game, from Don Mattingly to Orlando Arcia to notorious eater Prince Fielder, and this encounter between fan and athlete never gets old.

Snell will have a chance to burn off the calories from those chicken fingers Sunday, when he takes the mound for the Tampa Bay Rays series finale against the Blue Jays looking to solidify his AL Cy Young case.