ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – After the loudness of Rafael Devers’ historic night on Monday, almost any game outcome would be something of a letdown for the Red Sox.

Not Tuesday night’s victory, though. The Red Sox came from behind to beat the Rays 5-2, take the series, and get back over .500.

It was a monumental achievement in more ways than one: Boston’s last series victory at the Trop was on July 22-24, 2019, and they came to town having lost 15 of their last 16 games on the Rays’ home turf. The Red Sox were also 5-16 when their opponents score first.

The quietly thrilling undercurrent of the game was the pitchers’ duel. After years of being dominated by Tampa Bay’s seemingly endless stable of arms, Boston finally has the caliber of talent to square up with their division rivals.

“Athleticism, we’re in a better place,” Alex Cora said. “We’re versatile, we can play their game, we can come here and play defense, and run the bases, and be aggressive, and hit the ball out of the ballpark, and we can pitch, too.”

Cooper Criswell pitched a career-high 5 ⅓ innings in his seventh start of the season, holding his former team to two earned runs on six hits, one walk, and striking out six. He needed 79 pitches (56 strikes) to get there.

It didn’t look like it would be much of a duel in the bottom of the first. After the Red Sox went 1-2-3 in the top of the inning, the Rays came out of the gate aggressively and took an immediate 2-0 lead against their erstwhile teammate. Criswell gave up a leadoff first-pitch single to Josh Lowe and double to Randy Arozarena to begin his outing, and Isaac Paredes’ one-out single plated both runs. When Jonathan Aranda joined him on the bases with the Rays’ third single of the inning, Criswell was only at 10 pitches. The Red Sox starter faced seven batters before getting out of the first.

“He actually made one bad pitch, it was to Arozarena,” Cora said. “Paredes, he’s one of the best hitters in the big leagues and he’s locked in right now.”

Criswell’s night improved drastically after that tortuous first frame. After getting Boston on the board with an RBI single in the top of the second, Vaughn Grissom ignited a double play to erase José Siri’s leadoff single in the bottom of the inning, then made the third out for good measure. Criswell proceeded to get the Rays 1-2-3 in the following two frames, and working around a one-out single in the fifth to strike out the side.

Before giving up a one-out single to Paredes in the sixth, Criswell had struck out six of the previous seven Rays. Cora came out to make a pitching change, and with help from Devers, who showed off his improved defense, reliever Cam Booser got two quick outs to strand Paredes.

“He goes fast, he was going very fast against them, like he really wanted to beat ’em, and the tempo was too much,” Cora said of Criswell’s previous start, which had been his first time facing his former team. “Today, he was able to slow it down, make pitches, and we played good defense behind him.”

The Boston bats, however, struggled to get anything going against Zack Littell, a right-hander who’d made two relief appearances for the Red Sox last season. They went 1-2-3 in the first, third, fourth, and fifth, striking out six times and only collecting two hits, a walk, and one run.

The Red Sox entered the night hitting .231 with a .659 OPS when trailing. Too often, even a one- or two-run deficit proved insurmountable. By the top of the sixth inning, it seemed like this would be another one of those games.

Instead, for the second night in a row, Jarren Duran changed the game. After getting the bats going with a leadoff triple and scoring the first run of the game in the fourth inning on Monday, the Red Sox leadoff man opened Tuesday night’s sixth inning with a game-tying home run, blasted 427 feet to center. At 110.9 mph, it was the hardest-hit home run of his career, and the second-farthest.

Duran’s game-tier would be all the Red Sox got in the sixth, and they’d waste Reese McGuire’s two-out single in the seventh, only their fourth hit. But facing Jason Adams in the eighth, they finally pulled ahead. Ceddanne Rafaela led off with a single and stole second while Duran worked a seven-pitch at-bat for a walk. After going 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts, Wilyer Abreu came through, grounding a single through the right side of the infield to drive in Rafaela.

The inning took a turn for the worse when Abreu was caught stealing second and Tyler O’Neill struck out swinging.

And then it turned back. Adams put Devers on with an intentional walk. With Romy Gonzalez batting, Devers and Duran raced to steal second and home, respectively. Catcher Ben Rortvedt threw to Brandon Lowe, but when Devers leapt out of the second baseman’s way, Lowe opted to throw back home, instead. The Red Sox had a successful double-steal and another run on the board.

For Duran, who’d been about halfway down the line and opted not to steal home during the Red Sox’s opening series in Seattle in March, it was hard to say if the steal or the bomb felt better.

“Both, obviously, but I mean, stealing home to get us back and get us an extra run is always awesome, so I liked to be able to help the team today,” he said. “Seattle, I was halfway down the damn line and I was too scared to go. Even my brother let me know that I was too soft to go.”

“I’m not a home run guy, I’m just trying to hit the ball hard and run like crazy,” Duran added. “I’ve never pimped a homer. I mean, I’m sprinting for a double out of the box every time, and it just happens to go out.”

Duran leads the Majors with eight triples, and leads the Red Sox with 11 stolen bases. His steal of home was the first for the club since April 2016, when Travis Shaw stole home against the Rays at Fenway Park.

“This game changed, with the new rules and everything, and you see him and he’s the perfect player for this environment,” Cora said of Duran. “He can run, he can hit it out of the ballpark, he’s a good defender, and I’m glad that he’s our leadoff guy.”

McGuire added some insurance with a solo homer in the top of the ninth. Meanwhile, after Criswell’s exit in the sixth, the Rays didn’t manage another hit until the bottom of the ninth, when Paredes greeted Kenley Jansen with a double. It would prove meaningless moments later, when he retired the following three batters to earn the save.

“We won the series, and let’s get greedy,” Cora said. “Come here (Wednesday) and put on another good game and finish the road trip the right way.”