ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays returned to a familiar formula to snap out of their longest losing streak in three years: pitching, patience and well-timed power.

Austin Meadows, Mike Zunino and Brandon Lowe each went deep, and Rich Hill worked five solid innings before the bullpen took over to complete the Rays’ 8-2 win over the Red Sox on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field. So ended their seven-game losing streak, fittingly enough with their first victory of the season against the team they’re now chasing by just half a game in the American League East standings after a turbulent eight days.

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“We needed it,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We're a good team that's gone through a rough stretch, and we wanted to get out of it as quick as possible. We'd like to do it a little quicker next time, but we'll certainly take this.”

Tampa Bay hadn’t shaken hands on the field to celebrate a win since ace Tyler Glasnow’s last start on June 14 in Chicago, which he exited with a partially torn UCL and flexor strain. Then came an uncharacteristically poor stretch in which the Rays allowed 43 runs in seven games and lost four of them in extra innings, including three walk-offs. That skid dropped them 1 1/2 games behind the Red Sox in the division and put them on the verge of losing eight in a row for the first time since May-June 2018.

“You lose a consecutive amount of games, like we did, it just feels like a long stretch,” Meadows said. “But realistically, it's just a few games when it comes to the overall season itself, so we realize that good teams go through stuff like that. And I'm just proud of the way that we responded tonight.”

Those frustrations might have been weighing on them, but several players said you wouldn’t have noticed in the clubhouse. Meadows said the vibe in the clubhouse and dugout all day was “really loose.” Reliever Pete Fairbanks said before the game that the Rays’ “2000s kids put on some Fall Out Boy and some All-American Rejects … so we’re chilling.”

Maybe it was the music. Maybe not. Hill, the Rays’ 1980s kid, said the team has created a consistently positive atmosphere throughout the year, whether it was during their torrid stretch from mid-May to mid-June or their tough past week.

“It's kind of reiterated from the coaching staff and keeping everything not too high, not too low, not making a [seven]-game kind of skid into something that could have turned into more by having panic,” Hill said. “There was no panic. There’s no panic here. There's no panic in the clubhouse. The guys are playing with a relentless ease when they go out there.”

Hill walked five but only gave up one run over five innings of work, bouncing back from a pair of shaky outings with some of his trademark creativity -- different arm angles and timing mechanisms, plus a pitch mix that ran from 66.2 mph to 90.2 mph -- then relievers Andrew Kittredge, Jeffrey Springs, Ryan Thompson and Diego Castillo handled the rest.

Offensively, the Rays combined a patient approach -- they walked nine times and didn’t swing and miss until Red Sox starter Garrett Richards’ 45th pitch of the game -- with three timely shots from their top home run hitters.

The Rays erased Boston’s one-run lead in the first, as Wander Franco worked a two-out walk in his second big league game to keep the inning alive against Richards. Up came Meadows, who crushed a 1-1 fastball out to right-center field for his 16th home run of the season.

“I feel like we got to him pretty early, and that was big for us,” Meadows said. “That's something that I feel like we've struggled the past few games, and I think for us, just being able to get on the starter early and let our pitching continue to do their thing -- Rich was awesome tonight, and the guys after that as well.”

Richards’ struggles intensified in the second, when he threw 32 pitches but couldn’t get out of the inning. Brett Phillips drew a one-out walk before Zunino blasted a hanging slider out to left field for his 15th homer.

Lowe then doubled to right and moved to third on a groundout by Ji-Man Choi, at which point Franco used his speed -- and a Red Sox misplay -- to bring home another run. Franco hit a chopper to second baseman Enrique Hernández, who couldn’t seem to get a grip on a ball and bounced it to first baseman Bobby Dalbec too late to force out Franco, who sped down the line to force the error.

Lowe put the game well out of reach with two outs in the seventh, launching a three-run homer to center off former Ray Matt Andriese. It was Lowe’s 14th homer of the season, putting him third on the team behind the other two Rays who homered on Wednesday night: Meadows and Zunino.

“They're all powerful guys, and the game, we know, has turned into a very powerful game,” Cash said. “I think all of them would want to continue to work to be as complete of a hitter as possible, but in the meantime, when they're clicking home runs with guys on base, we'll certainly take that.”