MINNEAPOLIS -- Despite his recent struggles on the mound, Blake Snell walked into Target Field on Tuesday feeling as good as he has felt over the past month.

Snell was happy with the way he spent his time before arriving at the ballpark, was excited about his preparation and was confident with the way he wanted to attack the Minnesota hitters, who are among the most aggressive groups in all of baseball.

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The left-hander arrived at the ballpark earlier than usual to try to get a sense of how the Minnesota hitters were going to prepare for him during batting practice. Snell saw that the Twins had a curveball machine out, which gave him a good sense of how Minnesota was going to approach him.

With that in mind, it didn’t take long for anyone to realize how Snell was going to attack the Twins’ lineup. Snell, who has thrown his fastball 10.4 percent less than he did in 2018, threw 12 consecutive fastballs to start the game, and for 52 of his 80 pitches during the Rays’ 9-4 loss.

“I like the way I used the fastball,” Snell said. “I can tell their swings were late, so I kept throwing fastballs. Then they got a bunch of hits that just went their way.”

For a couple of innings it appeared that Snell, powered by his fastball, was on his way to a bounce-back outing, but then he allowed three runs in the third inning and followed it up with another three-run frame in the fourth. Snell came into Tuesday’s game limiting opposing hitters to a .144 average with two strikes, but the Twins collected five hits off Snell with two strikes, four of which came in the three-run third inning.

Snell allowed six runs on a career-high 11 hits over just 3 1/3 innings. It was the third time in his past five starts that he gave up six runs. In his five starts in June, he has an 11.42 ERA over 17 1/3 innings and has seen his season ERA balloon from 3.06 to 5.01.

The stretch has forced Snell to look within himself to figure out what, exactly, has been at the root of his struggles. Despite another rough outing, Snell said he felt that Tuesday was a “step forward” in returning him to the form that established him as one of the best pitchers in the American League last season.

“I think people would think it’s crazy if I told them that I feel better right now than I did last year, and I really do,” Snell said. “It’s frustrating, but I’m going to continue to get better."

Snell was also hurt by some luck on Tuesday. Even though he allowed 11 hits, only four of them were considered hard-hit balls, which is measured at 95 mph or higher. Two of the five two-strike hits that plagued Snell were hit over 100 mph. The other three were hit under 90 mph.

“I’m very confident in the way I feel that I’m going to get the results I want,” Snell said. “It’s a tough stretch, and I have to get out of it and I know I’m going to, so I’m confident in that.”

The Rays fell to 10-14 in June, and not much has gone right for Tampa Bay during the stretch. The bullpen has been taxed, and the offense has been held quiet most of the time. But after yet another loss, the priority is getting Snell back on track.

“I want to succeed so bad,” Snell said. “And for me to not succeed the way I want to, it’s tough. It’s tough to sleep. It’s tough to do things right and still do wrong. It’s very tough. But I know how good I am, and I know how hard I work that I know I’m going to come through this and be a better player from it.

“I know how failing can really help you become really great, and I know how much it can help you become even worse. With me knowing that, I know I’m going to become better and that I’m going to learn a lot from this, and this is just a short stint that’s probably going to teach me more than I probably learned last year. So it’s important that I learn a lot from this.”

For the Rays to make a run at the postseason, they’re going to need Snell to bounce back and figure things out. Now all they can do is hope that Snell is on the verge of breaking out of the worst stretch of his career.

“We all know how talented [Snell] is,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He wants to go out there, he wants to be the best and he wants to be the guy that can get us going in the right direction. It didn’t happen today, but he’s got five days to wait. I’m not sure who we’re playing in five days, Baltimore or Texas, but he can do that.”