The Oakland Athletics failed to hit a home run, instead relying on a clutch triple to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 9-8 in Tuesday's opener of a three-game series at the Rogers Centre.

Ryan Sweeney broke an 8-8 deadlock with a two-out triple off reliever Jeremy Accardo that scored Kurt Suzuki in the top of the ninth inning.

Toronto pitcher A.J.Burnett looks down in disgust during Tuesday's 9-8 loss.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Accardo (0-1) had retired Bobby Crosby and Jack Hannahan before serving up Suzuki's single to centre field. 

"Every time they came back, we just wanted to go back ahead again," Sweeney said. "We're not going to give up until the game is over."

Sweeney finished with two hits and two runs batted in, while Travis Buck, Mark Ellis and Kurt Suzuki each had two hits and one run batted in.

Daric Barton, Jack Cust and Mike Sweeney had the other RBIs for the Athletics (4-4), who hit four doubles and two triples. 

"It is the little things," Sweeney said. "Playing the game hard, running out ground balls, moving guys over, trying to break up a double play.

"It set the tone for our team. With so many young guys, we have to have high intensity every play of the game."

The Athletics scored five times in the second inning off Toronto starter A.J. Burnett, who yielded six runs on 10 hits and two walks in 4 2/3 innings.

The hard-throwing right-hander earned the win in his first start, hurling six-plus innings as the Blue Jays defeated the New York Yankees 5-2 last Wednesday.

"It was not [the real] me tonight and I cannot allow that to happen," Burnett said. "It was my loss tonight.

"It sucks that it is going to go down as a team loss because if it was not for me out there, we would have hung in there a lot better than we did."

Thomas homers off Embree

Blue Jays reliever Brian Tallet took the mound in the sixth inning, and gave up a single to Buck and walks to Barton and Mike Sweeney to load the bases for Cust, who hit an infield grounder.

As Buck scampered home with the go-ahead run, Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay threw to second base for the forceout, but shortstop David Eckstein's return throw went awry and Barton scored to make it 8-6.  

Toronto replied off reliever Alan Embree (1-1) in the eighth inning, when Vernon Wells doubled off the wall and Frank Thomas cleared the wall for a two-run homer to tie it 8-8.  

"We did what we could and tried to get back in it,"  said Wells, who walloped a three-run homer in the first inning for the Blue Jays (4-3).

Aaron Hill had four hits, including a two-run homer in the fourth, and Eckstein delivered Marco Scutaro with an RBI single to knot it at 6-6.

Oakland starter Chad Gaudin pitched only four innings, giving up six runs - one unearned - and eight hits with one walk and three strikeouts.

Gaudin was a substitute starter for Victoria's Rich Harden, who was scratched because of a strained muscle in his upper arm and back.

"I got through last game with it and I was wanting to pitch today," Harden said. "But they wanted me to take an extra couple of days."

With files from the Canadian Press