TAMPA — The questions were becoming as repetitive as the results, Rays players asked repeatedly over the last few days what it was going to take to get them out of the majors-worst 8-22 skid that followed their 25-9 run as the league’s best team.

“You just keep going,” closer Pete Fairbanks said Saturday morning. “Of the four major sports that are played in the U.S. … I would say you’re going to get the most volatility in hockey, one, and then baseball, two. It happens. The game is volatile. You experience significantly more luck in those two sports than you do in the other ones. So, that’s why you play 162 (games). You have the chance for stuff to happen that you don’t see in the game prior and you won’t see in the game after.

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“So, we’re going to keep doing our thing and eventually things will turn, because we’re the same team that went (25-9). I don’t think that’s changed. Sometimes you get worse results, but we’re going to do what we do and hopefully turn it back to what we are.”

They took a step in that direction Saturday afternoon with a 4-0 win over the Dodgers, snapping their four-game losing streak and shaking hands for just the second time in the past 11 days as they improved to 55-57.

What did it take?

Home runs by Yandy Diaz his first two times up against former teammate Blake Snell certainly helped, staking the Rays to a 3-0 lead by the third inning, and Junior Caminero adding his 28th homer in the sixth.

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A strong start by Drew Rasmussen was key, as he worked into the sixth, allowing only four singles to the star-studded Dodgers (striking out Shohei Ohtani twice), walking none and striking out six.

The defense was tight, with a pair of double plays and Diaz making an impressive stop behind first.

And the much criticized bullpen had a good day. Garrett Cleavinger got a key double play to end the sixth (after allowing two singles to load the bases), Edwin Uceta retired all six Dodgers he faced and Fairbanks finished with a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out the power trio of Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez.

“Our mentality was to attack early … and thank God things went well for us (Saturday), especially with the way we’ve been playing lately,” Diaz said via team interpreter Eddie Rodriguez. “We weren’t having a very good moment, but hopefully from (Saturday) on things are going to get better.”

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Snell, who won a Cy Young Award with the Rays in 2018 and another as a Padre in 2023, was returning from an extended bout of shoulder inflammation, having made only two starts after signing a five-year, $182 million contract. Overall, he pitched well for five innings.

Diaz hit his fifth pitch just 326 feet to rightfield and with an exit velocity of just 93.5 mph, but it was enough to get out, a homer only at Steinbrenner Field among the 30 current big-league parks.

“It doesn’t matter,” Diaz said. “It’s still a homer and an RBI.”

That homer was the the 900th hit of Diaz’s career. His 901st came in the third after a single by Taylor Walls and went 341 feet (though at 92.2 mph off the bat) to give the Rays a 3-0 lead.

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“Sometimes you play the elements a little bit,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Yandy did really well (Saturday) for two big home runs.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he was “surprised” either ball went out: “I thought, to be quite frank, (Snell) was a victim of this ballpark.”

Snell had no complaints: “Yandy won the game.”

Noting their friendship, Diaz joked, “He’s a little bit mad at me right now, but he’ll be fine.”

The Rays pitchers took the lead and protected it in what Rasmussen called “pretty stereotypical Rays baseball” — strong pitching, good defense, big hits when needed.

Rasmussen, paired with newly acquired catcher Hunter Feduccia (who came from the Dodgers organization), was sharp in posting his majors-leading 10th start (five or more innings) with no extra-base hits. He improved his record to a team best 9-5 with a 2.81 ERA.

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As much as the bullpen has been a problem, there were no issues as they faced 12 batters and recorded 11 outs, to complete the Rays’ ninth shutout win, allowing six singles and no walks.

“In my opinion, that’s the best way to win a baseball game,” Fairbanks said. “You don’t let the other team score. You score some runs. Everybody goes home happy. So, we’d like to build on it. I feel like I’ve said that numerous times after wins, and we haven’t been able to build on it.

“But we’ve got a super-talented arm (Joe Boyle) going (Sunday). We’re able to get to a two-time Cy Young winner (Saturday) and then tag on another insurance run later and take some good swings, have some good at-bats, and pair that with good pitching.

“That’s a good recipe, and we’d like to repeat it. And hopefully we do repeat it.”

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Added Cash, “A lot of good things happened, but they happened (Saturday). We’ve got to continue that.”

Rasmussen said he is confident they can.

“Although July wasn’t the best month ever, that (May-June) run, that is sustainable,” he said. “That is who we are. It’s not like we got hot for 10 days. We did it for six weeks. So, that team’s in here.”

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