Oakland Athletics: Tyson Ross Battered as A's Fall to Tampa Bay, 7-2

Seven runs in the third and fourth innings doomed the Oakland A's and a dominant David Price kept the offense quiet as the Tampa Bay Rays took the first game of a three-game series over Oakland, 7-2.

Tyson Ross could not get through the fourth inning, giving up seven runs on nine hits and two walks. His earned run average has ballooned to 8.55 from 2.13 in his last two starts. Meanwhile, Price overpowered the A's with a season-high 12 strikeouts over eight razor-sharp innings.

The A's took an early lead with a pair of doubles from Jonny Gomes and Kurt Suzuki in the second inning. But Ross simply could not keep his fastball out of the heart of the strike zone. After a game-tying double to Rays center fielder B.J. Upton, Luke Scott hit a go-ahead two-run single with two outs to give the Rays a lead they would not relinquish.

The game was busted open in the fourth when Jose Molina blasted a two-run home run to make it 5-1. An Upton RBI double and single from Matt Joyce closed the scoring. Cliff Pennington hit his first home run in the ninth off of reliever Brandon Gomes.

The A's loaded the bases in the ninth, but Kila Ka'aihue bounced out to first to end the game.

Good: A's bullpen. Pedro Figueroa, Jerry Blevins and Jim Miller combined to put up 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Bad: Jemile Weeks. 0-for-4 with two strikeouts for the leadoff hitter. Now hitting .184, Weeks also has a disconcerting .257 on-base percentage.

Ugly: Tyson Ross. After a pair of quality starts, he has been awful in his last two. His location has been off and the secondary pitches have not been near the quality to get out big-league hitters.

Now 13-14, the A's will attempt to return to .500 Saturday evening as Bartolo Colon faces Jeremy Hellickson. The first pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET.