St. Petersburg, FL -- (Sports Network) - Ben Zobrist had two RBI from the ninth spot in the lineup as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Oakland Athletics 4-3 at Tropicana Field in the rubber match of a three-game series.

James Shields (9-6) lasted 8 1/3 innings yielding three runs and six hits while striking out seven for the Rays, who have won four of their last six games. Shields is 5-1 in his last six starts.

"(Shields) hung in there really well. Settled in and pitched a typical game for him," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "It's all about the pitching. Wanted to give him a chance to finish what he began."

Zobrist's day, which ended with him being optioned to Triple-A Durham, included a solo home run as he was the only Ray with a multi-hit day going 2- for-3. Jonny Gomes also homered, a two-run shot, as the bottom two batters in Tampa Bay's order drove in all four of its runs.

Troy Percival saw one run score -- charged to Shields -- while issuing a walk and no hits in the ninth as he reached the 20-save plateau for the 10th time in his career.

Greg Smith (5-9) went six-plus innings allowing four runs on five hits and two walks while striking out four as Oakland lost for the seventh time in eight games.

"It was a pretty evenly played game, both pitchers made a couple mistakes with home run balls, but other than that they were both outstanding," Athletics manager Bob Green said.

Emil Brown and Carlos Gonzalez both homered, while Jack Cust doubled and scored the A's final run.

Gomes' two-out blast in the bottom of the fifth, his eighth, brought home Carlos Pena, who was hit by a pitch, to tie the game at two. Zobrist wasted no time giving the Rays their first lead, taking the next pitch over the wall in right for his fifth homer.

Tampa Bay padded its lead in the seventh on another Zobrist hit off reliever Santiago Casilla. The shortstop's one-out single scored Willy Aybar, who led off with a double to chase Smith from the game. Alan Embree relieved Casilla after just one-third of an inning of work, and after an Akinori Iwamura groundout, walked B.J. Upton to load the bases. Carl Crawford grounded out, however, to strand three runners.

The Athletics put one more run on the board with a Brown sacrifice fly in the ninth. Cust, who hit a one-out double to chase Shields from the game, advanced to third on a wild pitch before scoring on Brown's pop fly to center.

Brown and Gonzalez led off the second with back-to-back homers, their eighth and third, respectively, to give Oakland the early lead.

Game Notes

Tampa Bay's 20 series victories this season set a franchise record...Tampa Bay is 4-2 against Oakland this season...Shields was two outs shy of his fourth complete game this season...Zobrist was optioned to the minors in anticipation of Thursday's activation of starting shortstop Jason Bartlett from the 15-day disabled list.