Alec Burleson drove in two runs during St. Louis’ five-run second inning, and the Cardinals opened their three-game series with a 7-4 win over the host Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night.

Burleson, who went 2-for-5, put St. Louis ahead 5-1 with the two RBIs in the big frame, and starter Sonny Gray (12-6) yielded three runs on six hits while fanning six and walking one in five innings.

Willson Contreras was 2-for-5 with a solo homer, and Lars Nootbaar went 2-for-3 with a double, a run, an RBI and two walks. Nolan Gorman was 2-for-4 with a double.

Tampa Bay’s Yandy Diaz (2-for-3) crushed a two-run homer, and Chandler Simpson was 2-for-4 with a double, a walk and three runs.

In an erratic four-plus inning start, Joe Boyle (1-3) allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits while whiffing five, walking three and hitting a batter.

After being hammered by the New York Yankees over two games and never leading, the Rays hung up a run in the first inning after Simpson’s speed got him to third with one out. Brandon Lowe’s check-swing groundout was then good for an RBI.

However, the Cardinals put up a five-spot in the second behind Nathan Church’s fielder’s choice, Nootbaar’s double, a Boyle wild pitch and Burleson’s two-run single.

In the third, Diaz slashed the deficit in half by lacing a two-run homer to right, his 21st, but Ivan Herrera made it 6-3 with a single in the fourth.

The home side got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam unscathed in the fifth, but good defense in the home sixth kept it a three-run game.

With two outs and runners on first and second, Tristan Gray shot a single to center field, but Church tossed out Nick Fortes trying to advance to third before Everson Pereira touched home plate.

It got worse for the Rays in the seventh as Contreras launched a 423-foot homer, his 18th, to make it 7-3.

Junior Caminero’s groundout in the seventh provided the final run, and St. Louis reliever JoJo Romero closed it out with two scoreless innings for his fourth save.

-Field Level Media