Rays And Power Bats Hand Blue Jays Second Straight Throttling

St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Sean Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with three runs batted in and a run scored, as the Tampa Bay Rays dominated the Toronto Blue Jays, 10-1, in the middle installment of a three-game series at Tropicana Field.

Ben Zobrist, Dioner Navarro and Carlos Pena each hit solo homers for the Rays, who tied a season high with 15 hits. Kelly Shoppach knocked in two runs for Tampa Bay, which won 9-0 in the series opener and will go for the sweep on Thursday.

David Price (9-2) went six frames in the start, allowing one run on four hits to become the first nine-game winner in the American League. He also walked a season-high five batters and fanned four in the victory.

Lyle Overbay drove in the lone run for the Blue Jays, who have dropped three in a row and five of seven overall. Starter Shaun Marcum (5-3) got rocked for seven runs and 10 hits in four innings.

Tampa Bay's offense got going in the first inning. Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria hit consecutive one-out singles to put men on the corners for Shoppach, who drove in a run with a base hit up the middle. Rodriguez followed with an RBI double to left to make it 2-0.

The Rays added three more runs in the third to make it a five-run game. B.J. Upton reached base on a bunt single and advanced to second on Crawford's groundout before stealing third. After Longoria was intentionally walked, Shoppach hit a sacrifice fly to deep left. Rodriguez then hit an RBI double down the left-field line and Zobrist capped the frame's scoring with an RBI single.

Toronto's first hit of the contest didn't come until the top of the fourth. Overbay and John Buck hit consecutive one-out singles and Edwin Encarnacion walked to load the bases. Price, though, got Mike McCoy to go down looking and Fred Lewis to ground into a fielder's choice.

The Rays plated two more runs in the home half on Navarro's solo homer and Longoria's RBI double. Zobrist and Pena hit back-to-back homers off Shawn Camp in the fifth to extend Tampa Bay's lead to 9-0.

Tampa Bay has now won 10 consecutive home series against Toronto since early in the 2007 season, and the Rays took eight of nine games from the Jays at the Trop in 2009...The Blue Jays were without shortstop Alex Gonzalez (personal) and infielder John McDonald (personal)...The Rays played the 2,000th game in franchise history on Wednesday...Marcum fell to 2-2 lifetime against Tampa Bay...Price improved to 5-0 in six career starts versus Toronto...The Blue Jays activated pitcher Jesse Litsch from the 60-day disabled list Wednesday and optioned pitcher Rommie Lewis to Triple-A Las Vegas. Litsch had elbow ligament replacement surgery in June of 2009. He will replace Brian Tallet in the rotation and is scheduled to make his first start on Sunday at Colorado.