twins/mlb

Final Score: Tampa Bay 5, Baltimore 0

St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - David Price pitched into the eighth inning as the Tampa Bay Rays took a 5-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles in the opener of a three-game set.

Price (7-3) gave up just three hits and two walks with five strikeouts over 7 1/3 innings for the Rays, who had lost four of five coming into the game. Hideki Matsui hit a two-run homer in a five-run first inning.

Wei-Yin Chen (4-2) gave up five runs on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings for the Orioles, who have dropped six straight to fall a game back of the Rays for first place in the AL East. Adam Jones and Matt Wieters each had two hits in the loss.

"We win and lose as a group and right now we're not playing our best baseball," said Jones. "We need a kick in the pants right now to turn it around because this division is not going to let up and we have to be the same way."

The Rays batted around in the first inning to take a big lead. With the bases loaded and one out, Luke Scott punched a single to center to score two and Sean Rodriguez followed with a suicide squeeze. Matsui then crushed the first pitch he saw just fair over the right-field wall for a 5-0 lead.

It was all Price's game from there as he retired the first 13 batters he faced until Wieters punched a one-out single to right in the fifth inning.

Baltimore then loaded the bases in the sixth with a pair of one-out walks and a single, but J.J. Hardy hit a fly out to left that saw Steve Tolleson nailed at second trying to tag up.

Jake McGee retired the final two batters of the eighth after Wilson Betemit reached base on an error by Ben Zobrist.

Burke Badenhop came on in the ninth and got the first out, but then put the next three batters on base. Fernando Rodney, though, struck out Mark Reynolds and got Chris Davis to ground out for his 17th save of the season.

"They threatened several times. We were able to avert the threat," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "It was good to get those runs early."

Game Notes

The Orioles took two of three from Tampa Bay in Baltimore from May 11-13...Baltimore has scored just 14 times during their losing streak...Price improved to 5-2 over 10 career starts against Baltimore.