TAMPA, Fla. — A Cardinals offense as persistent as it was opportunistic turned whatever was offered into a decisive rally early that gave its pitchers plenty of room to navigate a ballpark the club only knew from spring training.

Leadoff hitter Lars Nootbaar spurred a five-run burst in the second inning and Willson Contreras hit a solo home run late to lift the Cardinals to a 7-4 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays at George Steinbrenner Field.

The Cardinals used a mix of hits from throughout the lineup, misplays by the Rays, and a timely wild pitch to put together the offense that gave starter Sonny Gray a chance for his 12th win of the season. Nootbaar reached base four times and had a double in the decisive second inning. Lefty JoJo Romero secured his fourth save of the season with two scoreless innings and three strikeouts.

He got the final out of the game on a 84.4-mph slider to strike out Josh Lowe.

The Cardinals’ first look at Steinbrenner Field as a regular-season park gave them a glimpse of what it’s been like for the Rays’ calling a spring training home for a season. A hurricane ravaged Tropicana Field, forcing the Rays to lease the park from the New York Yankees for the season. Outside are all of the Yankees’ retired number monuments, but inside the Rays’ logo and branding has covered up everything but the replica Yankee Stadium façade.

The game drew 9,182 to the ballpark across the street from the Buccaneers’ home stadium, and it’s only the 10th time the Rays did not have a sellout of the limited tickets.

The park plays spring small.

There is limited foul territory, so some of the outs that outfielders might usually snag or infielders might track down to help the starter and hasten the game sail into the stands to prolong innings and increase pitch counts. The ball also soars. The Yankees hit 14 home runs in two games at Steinbrenner this week, including a club record nine in Tuesday’s win.

The Cardinals got their home run in the seventh as Contreras opened the in the inning with a blast to center and a jubilant bat flip. Contreras’ 18th home run of the season traveled 423 feet into the night.

And toward the intersection of surface streets beyond center.

Nootbaar keys rally

At one point in Thursday evening’s game, Cardinals leadoff hitter Nootbaar upped his average on the road trip to .500 (8 for 16), and along with it went the Cardinals’ lead in the game.

Five batters into the second inning, Nootbaar drilled an RBI double toward center field that started the Cardinals pulling away from the Rays in that inning. Nootbaar took third on a wild pitch from right-hander Joe Boyle and then scored on a single. Two innings later, an error put No. 9 hitter and rookie Nathan Church on base. Church stole second for the first big league steal of his career. Nootbaar’s 11th hit in five games moved Church to third so he could score one batter later.

Nootbaar has a streak of five consecutive multi-hit games going into Friday evening’s game at Steinbrenner. In Miami, he went 6 for 14. He opened Thursday’s game with a leadoff walk and got his first two walks of the road trip. Through the eighth inning Thursday, Nootbaar had reached base four times in the game and 10 times in the first four games in Florida.

Sonny with a chance of Ks

Whatever trouble the Rays put starter Gray (12-6) in through his five innings, he usually found a way out by spinning a pitch that a bat could not find.

The right-hander had to pitch out of a mess in the first that came with a single, a wild pitch, and eventually walk and a stolen base. He did with the help of a fly out that did not find it’s way out of the minor-league ballpark. From there came the strikeouts. Gray caught both of the first two Rays of the second inning looking. To open the third, Yandy Diaz bruised Gray with a two-run homer, but any further damage was neutralized by Gray’s inning-ending strikeout.

At one point, Gray struck out three consecutive Rays, catching one staring at his sinker.

Gray struck out six as he pitched with a sizable lead that gave him license to challenge hitters. He used 92 pitches to get 15 outs.

Eventful outing for Boyle

Although he graduated from a high school in Kentucky and was drafted out of Notre Dame, Rays starter Boyle had a formative season in the St. Louis area.

It was there, as a freshman at Fort Zumwalt West in O'Fallon, Mo., that the right-hander experienced a growth spurt to 6-foot-4 and it was there, on a travel ball team, that he started to harness his size and turn it into the velocity that would later gain attention. Having joined the Rays’ rotation this season, Boyle made his sixth start of the season and the 14th of his career Thursday with his first against the Cardinals.

It did not go smoothly.

Boyle (1-4) routinely touched 99 mph with his fastball, but he also hit a batter, misfired a wild pitch that allowed a run to score, and threw wildly to second base. He allowed more batters to reach base against him than he got outs. Boyle faced 25 Cardinals and 13 of them reached by walk, hit, or hit batter.

Five of the six runs the Cardinals scored against Boyle came in the second inning, and a handful of them got help from the pitcher. The first run of the inning scored on a groundball in front of Boyle that Thomas Saggese outran to the plate for any play and tie the game, 1-1. The Cardinals’ third run of the inning came when Church scored on a wild pitch. Ivan Herrera was hit by a pitch and took second on a wild pitch. He scored on Alec Burleson’s two-run ground-ball single to take a 5-1 lead for Gray.

Church’s throw, Rays’ mistake nixes run

It appeared that Tampa Bay was going to string together a two-out rally to carve into the Cardinals’ three-run lead in the sixth inning.

A strong throw from Church challenged the rally.

A slow run home assured its end.

Reliever Kyle Leahy walked Everson Pereira with one out in the sixth. He got to second on Nick Fortes’ two-out single to center, and No. 9 hitter Tristan Gray followed with a line-drive base hit to center. Pereira rounded third to head home, and Church, who has the best outfield arm in the Cardinals’ minor leagues according to Baseball America, turned his focus toward third and Fortes. Church’s throw was a strike, and Nolan Gorman applied the tag.

Between third and home, Pereira slowed into a trot home.

Cardinals catcher Pedro Pages quickly pointed out that Gorman’s tag came before Pereira’s foot hit him plate. There would be no run, only a third out at third base. The umps called it like Pages’ saw it, and the Rays did not challenge.

The run would have squeezed the lead down to 6-4.

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