Major League Baseball

Rays shut out Angels behind Price for 7-0 win

Published Aug. 17, 2012 2:05 a.m. ET

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David Price pitched three-hit ball over seven innings for his AL-leading 16th victory and the Tampa Bay Rays got home runs from Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton and Ben Zobrist in a 7-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night.

Burke Badenhop and Wade Davis each worked one inning in the Rays' third straight shutout against the Angels. The Halos have gone 32 consecutive innings without scoring against a staff that leads the AL in ERA, opponents' batting average and strikeouts.

Price (16-4) struck out eight, walked two and lowered his ERA to 2.39, third in the AL behind the Angels' Jered Weaver and Detroit's Justin Verlander. The left-hander allowed only two runners to third base in this one, striking out Chris Iannetta to end the fifth inning and fanning Vernon Wells to escape the seventh.

Price is 7-0 with a 2.21 ERA over his last nine road starts, and 8-0 with a 1.72 ERA in his last 11 starts overall since a 9-1 home loss to the New York Mets on June 13.

Dan Haren (8-10) threw 61 pitches in 3 1-3 innings and gave up five runs on seven hits, including Zobrist's 13th homer and Upton's 14th. The right-hander has allowed at least one home run in a career-worst 10 consecutive starts and 15 total during a streak that began when the Colorado Rockies hit four against him on June 9 at Coors Field - all solo shots in Haren's 11-5 victory. The last time Haren didn't give up a homer was June 3 against Texas.

The Rays, who lost 1-0 at Seattle Wednesday on a perfect game by Felix Hernandez, had a streak of 34 consecutive batters retired in order before Zobrist ended it with a one-out homer in the second inning. He drove a 2-2 pitch into the first row of seats above the 18-foot wall in right-center, and Angels manager Mike Scioscia came out to argue that a fan interfered with the ball. But the ruling by second base ump Al Porter stood after a video review.

Upton triggered a four-run fourth with a drive into the left field bullpen, one of six hits Haren surrendered during the inning. Jeff Keppinger hit a two-run single and Ryan Roberts made it 5-0 with a sacrifice fly before Jose Molina chased Haren with a two-out single. It was the second straight start in which the three-time All-Star failed to get through the fourth inning.

Longoria increased the margin to 7-0 in the fifth with his fifth homer of the season and his only once in 115 at-bats since coming off the 60-day disabled list on Aug. 7. The Rays are 8-2 since his return, after going 41-44 while he was sidelined with a partially torn left hamstring.

NOTES: The last two times a pitcher threw a perfect game against the Rays, they responded with an 8-4 stretch following Mark Buehrle's in 2009, and an 8-2 stretch following Dallas Braden's in 2010. ... Weaver gets a chance to tie Price again for the league lead in wins on Friday night when he opposes James Shields. ... Haren has surrendered 22 homers in his 22 starts, two more than he gave up last season in 34 starts. His only other outing against the Rays this season was on July 27, when he beat them 3-1 at Angel Stadium. ... Tampa Bay's starting pitchers are 11-2 with a 1.57 ERA over the team's last 18 games. ... The Rays came in leading the majors leading the AL with a .233 opponents' batting average, after doing so in each of the previous two seasons. The last club to accomplish a three-peat in that department was Detroit (1983-85). ... Tampa Bay's bullpen has a 0.88 ERA over the last 26 games, compared to a 5.90 ERA by the Angels' bullpen during that same stretch. ... Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon, who was Scioscia's former bench coach in Anaheim, has 559 wins with the Rays during the regular season - 41 more than the franchise had in its eight seasons before he got the job in 2006.

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