ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - B.J. Upton hit a game-ending, three-run homer off Vicente Padilla, capping Tampa Bays six-run ninth inning and lifting the Rays to a sorely needed 7-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night. Tampa Bay salvaged a split of the four-game series and remained 5 1/2 games back of Oakland for the second AL wild-card slot. The Rays (80-70) have 12 games left on their schedule. Andrew Bailey (1-1) gave up four hits and a walk before Padilla came in to face Upton, who drove a 2-1 pitch over the wall in centre for his 24th homer. Burke Badenhop (2-2) recorded one out to get the win. Clay Buchholz outpitched Tampa Bay ace David Price, tossing seven innings of four-hit ball before handing a 2-0 lead to the Boston bullpen. Mauro Gomez hit a two-out RBI triple in the eighth for the Red Sox, but they couldnt hold on for the victory. Jose Iglesias had three hits for Boston, including his first career home run. Ryan Lavarnway and Gomez each had two hits and an RBI. It was only the third win in the last 10 games for the Rays. Price allowed three runs and eight hits in 7 1-3 innings. He struck out seven and walked one while throwing 119 pitches. Cody Ross two-out double in the sixth gave Boston the lead and ended Prices streak of 29 1-3 scoreless innings at home. Lavarnway drove in Ross with a single. Iglesias connected against J.P. Howell in the ninth, sending an 0-2 pitch over the wall in centre. Ben Zobrist drove in the Rays first run with an eighth-inning sacrifice fly off Junichi Tazawa. It was the Rays first run in Prices last three starts at home. Buchholz struck out four and walked two. The right-hander is 0-3 with a 4.07 ERA in his last six starts. Jacoby Ellsbury was out of Bostons starting lineup, but replaced Pedro Ciriaco after the centre fielder lost two fly balls against the Tropicana Field roof. Both fell for doubles, the Rays only hits in the first four innings. NOTES: The eight combined strikeouts by Price and Wade Davis left the Rays with 1,264 for the season, two short of the American League record set by the New York Yankees in 2001. ... With two games left at Boston next week, the Red Sox lead the season series 9-7. ... Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia went 0 for 16 in the four-game series. ... Lavarnway has seven RBIs in his last seven games. wholesale jerseys . -- EJ Manuels January couldnt have gone much better on the field. nfl holdjersey . -- Trevor Plouffe has struggled since returning from the disabled list and hitting into a triple play only served to highlight his recent problems. http://www.holdjersey.com/ . -- Lindsey Vonn felt pressure to win the season-opening World Cup downhill at Lake Louise, even though she is the most dominant ski racer there. cheap jerseys . While others perceived an improved Canadian performance over last weeks win over the U.S. Eagles, the former All Black saw his rugby team pay the price for abandoning its game plan. nba holdjersey . The routine procedure was performed by Dr. Lewis Yocum after the regular season ended to clean up the left elbow area, the team said Tuesday in a release.SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Nearly two months after their season ended prematurely with a first-round playoff exit, the San Jose Sharks vowed to be a more aggressive team on the ice next season under coach Todd McLellan. General manager Doug Wilson and McLellan addressed the media on Monday to preview the upcoming draft and free agency period and formally announce that McLellan will return for a fifth season as coach in San Jose. The Sharks ownership group announced in early May after the playoff loss to St. Louis that Wilson would be back as general manager and would make changes to make the team a Stanley Cup contender. Wilson said then that McLellans status was still under review as he wanted to understand what went wrong during the season and give McLellan time to heal from a concussion he suffered after being hit in the head by a stick while on the bench. "Todd is our coach, has been our coach," Wilson said. "The process we went through there was to look through this past year. Much like players have injuries and you want them to get healthy and get their honest feedback, Ill be honest with you, with Todd, I liked the idea of giving him a little bit of time not just for his emotions but how hes feeling. He took a pretty good whack in the head and he took another a few weeks after that. We used this time really well to understand what we need to address, where we need to go and how well get there." McLellan said he could be making changes to his staff and had a list of potential assistants he wanted to interview. Wilson said it may be necessary to add a former NHL player to the staff that had just two assistants last season: Matt Shaw and Jay Woodcroft. McLellan said he learned quite a bit watching the final three rounds of the playoffs. But he stressed the team needs to improve its penalty killing, a more aggressive forecheck, more shot blocking and a stronger defensive emphasis without overhauling the entire system. "Were aware that were not chasing a formula," he said. "We have our own formula. Thats what well continue to do. Well enhance it, well grow it, well pull pieces in from other organizations and have our formula and our identity. Thats what well play to." Wilson said the major change he wanted from the team was going from one that was "passive and reactive" to one that would be "aggressive and proactive" next season. He believed that many of the problems stemmed from an ineffective penalty killing unit that left players hesitant to play physically or aggressively out of a fear of allowing a power-play goal. The Sharks had the second-worst pennalty-kill unit during the regular season and then allowed six goals in 18 power-play chances in five games against the Blues.dddddddddddd Wilson was particularly upset that no player retaliated at the start of Game 3 following an end-of-game fight in Game 2 that featured St. Louis Vladimir Sobotka breaking San Jose forward Dominic Moores nose and Blues defenceman Roman Polak pummeling Justin Braun in another fight. "One of the bigger issues we talked about initially was the identity of this hockey team," Wilson said. "We got away from it a little bit the passive, reactive. Thats not part of our identity and how we want to play it. There are moments it crept in. How you get that out is going to be addressed by approach, clarification from players how you handle situations and different players." Wilson would not confirm a report by TSN that recently acquired defenceman Brad Stuart had agreed to a three-year contract worth $3.6 per season but said he expected a deal to be reached before Stuart was eligible to become an unrestricted free agent July 1. The Sharks acquired Stuarts rights from Detroit earlier this month for potential free agent Andrew Murray and a conditional seventh-round draft pick in 2014. "We try to be fairly proactive if theres something we like and we want and think its a pretty good fit," Wilson said. "To get a left-hand shot guy who is a physical player like him who plays the right way is something we needed. He fits in really well." Representatives of the ownership group of Sharks Sports & Entertainment also made a rare public appearance Monday with Kevin Compton and Stratton Sclavos acknowledging that the team has been operating under a deficit to achieve the goal of winning the Stanley Cup, including about $15 million this past season. "Thats what the whole business is about," Sclavos said. "Weve been spending to the salary cap every year to put the best team on the ice that we can. In aggregate the performance has been good. But youre only known by your last season by the fans and the media and were very disappointed in what happened this past year. Were going to take the right steps with Doug and the team to make sure we get a better performance on the ice next year." NOTES: Wilson said D Brent Burns (sports hernia) and F Logan Couture (shoulder) had off-season operations and should be 100 per cent by training camp. ... The Sharks said the season-ticket renewal rate was about 91 per cent, similar to the average 92 per cent renewal rate, despite the early playoff exit. ' ' '