"Walking off the field after Monday's game, possibly his worst in the big leagues, Evan Longoria had reason to hang his head. He'd been hitless at the plate and made a costly error in the field and an inexcusable mistake on the bases.

Walking off was a little different Tuesday, as Longoria redeemed himself by hitting a home run leading off the ninth inning that gave the Rays a thrilling 4-3 win over the Reds.

"It's always exciting to hit a walkoff," Longoria said. "There's really no feeling like ending the game and knowing that when you touch home that it's over.

"It actually was pretty surreal. It was something I felt like I hadn't done in a long time to be able to contribute in a way like that. So it was a good feeling."

Longoria's dramatics, which pushed the Rays' record to 45-35 and kept them within 21/2 games of first place, made up for a lot before a crowd of 20,894 at Tropicana Field, giving the Rays their fifth walkoff and 14th come-from-behind win of the season.

David Price had a stellar start, perfect into the fifth and striking out a career-high-tying 12 by mixing an overpowering fastball with an extremely effective changeup. "No-hit stuff," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. But after giving up three hits in the eighth, he turned a 1-0 lead from Johnny Damon's homer into a 2-1 deficit, and he flipped the ball toward the Rays dugout in disgust. "Frustrating," Price said.

After the Rays rallied right back to go up 3-2, on singles by John Jaso and Sam Fuld and a perfectly placed blooper by Damon that caromed off diving leftfielder Chris Heisey's glove for a double, closer Kyle Farns­worth blew just his second save in 18 chances by allowing just his second home run, a leadoff blast to Jay Bruce that made it 3-3. "No ill words," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Kyle's been money all year.""