ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — On Opening Day, David Price, the subject of trade rumors all winter, made the Tampa Bay Rays glad they held onto him.
The left-hander took a shutout into the eighth inning, and the Rays came through with clutch two-out hitting, cruising to a 9-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday at Tropicana Field.
Price (1-0) held the Blue Jays to four hits in the first seven innings, getting more efficient as the game progressed. He threw six pitches in the sixth and seven in the seventh.
“I was just making pitches, throwing strikes, letting my teammates play defense,” said Price, who had a solid but not great 2013 season after winning the American League Cy Young Award in 2012. “They made my job a lot easier tonight. …
“It feels to be good to be back here. Everybody in the clubhouse knows that I want to be here.”
The Rays scored in four of the first five innings, benefiting from six walks issued by Toronto starter R.A. Dickey (0-1), the 2012 National League Cy Young Award winner.
“I lost the feel of it there for a little bit,” said Dickey, who gave up six runs on five hits and six walks in five innings. “I did a poor, poor job of making the endgame adjustment I needed to make. I think they scored five of their six runs with two outs, so I was one pitch away almost every inning of getting out of a jam. … That was completely my loss.”
Right fielder Wil Myers scored on a two-out single by third baseman Evan Longoria in the first, then drove in two runs with a two-out single in the second. Designated hitter Matt Joyce’s third-inning sacrifice fly and his two-run, two-out double in the fifth added to the Rays’ cushion.
Myers finished 3-for-5 after entering the game 0-for-7 against Dickey, an encouraging development for Rays manager Joe Maddon.
“To do what he did I know is probably going to accelerate his confidence a bit, especially the next time he sees him,” Maddon said. “That was really good to watch. We’re going to see this guy a lot, going to see this team a lot.”
The Jays could have lost more than just the opener, with shortstop Jose Reyes leaving the game after lining out to center in the first inning. He tweaked a left hamstring injury that bothered him last week.
“They’re going to evaluate it, get an MRI. He irritated the same spot, so that’s a concern,” manager John Gibbons said. “Until he gets an MRI, we won’t know what’s going to happen.”
Price retired the first six in order and got himself out of jams in the third and fourth, an improvement on the pitcher whose team lost each of his first five starts last season. Price lost his shutout in the eighth on a two-run home run by pinch hitter Erik Kratz, and he left to an ovation with a 6-2 lead.
In 7 1/3 innings, Price allowed two runs on six hits and a walk. He struck out six.
Myers finished a strong day with his third hit — an eighth-inning infield chop that he scored on, thanks to throwing errors by pitcher Jeremy Jeffress and right fielder Jose Bautista.
The Rays scored in each of the first three innings for a 4-0 lead, getting two-out hits for their first three runs. Longoria’s two-out single in the first brought home Myers, who doubled for the Rays’ first hit.
Myers came through in the second, getting a two-out, two-run single after left fielder Desmond Jennings doubled to lead off the inning. Dickey walked two to load the bases, and Myers’ hit increased the lead to 3-0.
Second baseman Macier Izturis was the only Toronto play to collect two hits.
NOTES: Tampa Bay sold out the opener at Tropicana Field for the ninth year in a row. Monday’s game drew a crowd of 31,042. … Toronto failed to win each of its previous 19 series at Tropicana, the longest such streak in baseball since the Rays had 25 in a row at Boston from 2000-08, per the Elias Sports Bureau. The series with games the next three days. … The starting pitchers, Blue Jays RHP R.A. Dickey and Rays LHP David Price, both won Cy Young Awards in 2012, but after going a combined 40-11 that season, they went a combined 25-21 in 2013.