Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Tampa Bay 9, Toronto 2
When: 4:10 PM ET, Monday, March 31, 2014
Where: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida
Temperature: Indoors
Umpires: Home - Brian Gorman, 1B - Bill Welke, 2B - Jim Wolf, 3B - David Rackley
Attendance: 31042

Rays 9, Blue Jays 2: David Price pitched 7 1/3 strong innings and Matt Joyce knocked in three runs as Tampa Bay rolled over visiting Toronto in the opener for both teams.

Wil Myers contributed three hits and two RBIs while Evan Longoria had a pair of singles and an RBI and Desmond Jennings added two hits for the Rays. Price (1-0) allowed two runs on six hits, walked one, struck out six and threw 102 pitches to gain his first win in his third Opening Day start.

Erik Kratz belted a two-run pinch hit homer in the eighth and Maicer Izturis had a pair of singles for the Blue Jays. Toronto starter R.A. Dickey (0-1) yielded six runs on five hits and six walks while striking out four to take the loss after going 3-1 against the Rays last season.

Myers doubled and scored on Longoria’s two-out single in the first and made it 3-0 with a bases-loaded single after there were two away in the second. A pair of walks by Dickey led to Joyce’s sacrifice fly with one out in the third to increase the lead for Tampa Bay.

Two more bases-on-balls by Dickey in the fifth set up a two-run double by Joyce off the right-field wall as the Rays pushed the advantage to 6-0. Price lost his shutout bid on the blast by Kratz to center field during his first at-bat with Toronto in the eighth before Tampa Bay sealed it with three runs in the bottom of the inning.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Toronto SS Jose Reyes left the game in the bottom of the first inning with left hamstring tightness after flying out in the top of the frame. … Price is 14-2 all time against the Blue Jays in 18 starts. … Joyce, who also had a single, was the 15th different DH used by Tampa Bay in 17 Opening Days. The Rays improved to 9-8 all time in season openers.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Toronto   Tampa Bay
R.A. Dickey Player David Price
Loss W/L Win
5.0 IP 7.1
4 Strikeouts 6
5 Hits 6
10.80 ERA 2.45
Hitting
Toronto   Tampa Bay
Maicer Izturis Player Wil Myers
2 Hits 3
0 RBI 2
0 HR 0
2 TB 4
.667 Avg .600
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Toronto 7 1 10 .212 12 9 2 1 0 2
Tampa Bay 11 0 14 .344 23 6 7 8 1 0