ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – David Price is determined to change things.
Josh Willingham led off the 10th inning with a home run, helping the Oakland Athletics beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Sunday.
Price didn't make it halfway through the extra-inning affair, allowing four runs and seven hits over 4 2-3 innings. The AL All-Star was coming off three straight losses.
"It's been frustrating the last month and a half," Price said throwing 110 pitches in his second shortest outing of the season. "It's going to change. It stinks."
Willingham lined a 3-2 pitch from Jake McGee (0-1) into the left field stands for his 17th homer this season.
"It was a tough one," McGee said. "I threw a lot of fastballs and he got me on the last one. I wanted to go in, off the plate and I kind of left it over the plate. He's a professional hitter. He's supposed to hit that pitch, especially seeing five or six fastballs in a row.
Fautino De Los Santos (1-0) threw a scoreless ninth to pick up his first major league win and Andrew Bailey allowed two singles in the 10th before getting his 13th save.
Hideki Matsui also homered for Oakland, which stopped a stretch of 12 consecutive non-winning road series by taking two of three from the Rays.
Tampa Bay got homers from Casey Kotchman and Evan Longoria.
Matsui extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a two-run homer off Price during a three-run fifth that gave Oakland a 4-3 advantage. The designated hitter has 23 homers and 99 RBIs in 129 games against the Rays, his most against many team.
"He was not right," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon of Price. "Command overall was not normal. Velocity looked kind of OK ... Just did not have a good feel for it today."
Price struck out seven and walked three.
David DeJesus scored the go-ahead run in the fifth on J.P. Howell's wild pitch.
Tampa Bay pulled even at 4 on Longoria's solo shot off Grant Balfour during the seventh.
Kotchman had a solo homer and Desmond Jennings hit an RBI single as Tampa Bay went up 3-1 in the fourth. Johnny Damon put the Rays ahead 1-0 on a third-inning RBI grounder.
Ryan Sweeney was hitless in 19 at-bats against left-hander's this season before getting Oakland even at 1 on a run-scoring single off Price in the fourth. The Rays lefty entered holding left-handed batters to a .154 average this year, lowest among major league starters.
Tampa Bay's Ben Zobrist lost a double with two outs in the seventh after a reversal call. First base umpire Tim Welke, while attempting to get out of the way of a liner down the line, called the ball fair. Welke, after talking with Oakland manager Bob Melvin, checked with plate umpire Mike DiMuro and the call was changed to foul.
Zobrist then popped out to end the inning.
Oakland's Trevor Cahill gave up three runs and six hits over six innings.
NOTES: The Rays are 12-12 in Price's 24 starts this season. ... Tampa Bay placed rookie RHP Alex Cobb on the 15-day disabled list with a hand injury and recalled LHP Cesar Ramos from Triple-A Durham. ... Damon has just two hits in his last 28 at-bats. ... Rays RHP Jeremy Hellickson (10-7) will face Kansas City RHP Luke Hochevar (8-8) in the opener of a four-game series Monday night. ... Oakland will have RHP Rich Harden (2-2) take the hill Tuesday night against the Blue Jays, who are scheduled to have LHP Brett Cecil (4-4) pitch.
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