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The Toronto Blue Jays extended the Oakland Athletics to extra innings on Thursday night, but still failed to avoid a three-game series sweep.

Travis Buck's two-run double in the top of the 12th inning was the decisive hit as the Athletics beat the Blue Jays 3-2 at the Rogers Centre. 

Toronto starter Shaun Marcum walks to the dugout in Thursday's 3-2 setback.
(J.P. Moczulski/Canadian Press)

"We're very confident right now," Buck said. "The Blue Jays are not going to get swept too many times this year, let alone here."

Buck's double came off a hanging sinker from reliever Brandon League (0-1), who was charged with two runs on two hits and three walks in just 1 2/3 innings.

"I left it up and he put it in the air," League said. "Otherwise, it is another ground ball."

"He wasn't throwing the split-finger for strikes," Buck observed. "We were just going up there looking for the fastball."

Buck finished with three doubles, tying the franchise record, and three runs batted in for the Athletics (6-4).

"The way we battled all the way to the end and came out on top, everybody did their job this series," he said. "We're very proud, and we have got to continue it."

Toronto rallied for one run in the bottom of the 12th off reliever Keith Foulke, with Alex Rios ripping a double and scoring on an RBI single from Vernon Wells.

Frank Thomas walked to put two runners aboard for Aaron Hill, but Foulke got him to ground into a game-ending double play.

"We just played bad baseball," Hill said. "They hit, we didn't.

"Everything went in their favour and we cannot let that happen again. Hopefully, we learn from it and do a much better job next time."

"We failed, that is the bottom line," Wells said.

Three straight losses

Shannon Stewart drove in the other run for the Blue Jays (4-5), losers of three straight games following a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox.

"We got off to a good start in this homestand," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "Then, we coughed it up."
 
Toronto starter Shaun Marcum pitched seven solid innings, limiting the Athletics to one run on six hits and a walk with eight strikeouts.

Oakland broke the scoreless deadlock off Marcum in the fifth inning, as Ryan Sweeney singled with two out and circled the bases on Buck's RBI double to centre field.

Toronto tied it 1-1 in the eighth off reliever Alan Embree, who surrendered a leadoff triple to Marco Scutaro and a sacrifice fly to Stewart.

Oakland starter Dana Eveland scattered three hits, walked three and struck out six in 6 1/3 shutout innings. 

Reliever Joey Devine (1-0), who was recalled from the minors earlier in the day, arrived at the ballpark 20 minutes before the first toss and earned the win with two innings of four-hit ball.

"I got here [from Sacramento] in one piece, and was able to be a part of an unbelievable baseball game," said Devine, whose connecting flight was delayed by a snowstorm in Denver.

"It is just one of those things where you have got to get what you did previously in the day out of your head and mentally block it off."

Foulke notched his first save this season.

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