Tuesday night, after the Red Sox clinched their first series victory at Tropicana Field in five years, Red Sox manager Alex Cora issued his marching orders for the following day.

“We won the series, and let’s get greedy,” Cora said. “Put on another good game and finish the road trip the right way.”

Mission accomplished.

After falling behind 3-0 early the Red Sox offense roared to life, scoring eight unanswered runs to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 8-5. A five-run fifth inning kicked off the onslaught, with Connor Wong tying the game with a two-run single and Rob Refsnyder putting Boston ahead for good with an RBI single of his own.

Now the Red Sox leave St. Petersburg with their first series sweep at The Trop since April 19-21, 2019.

“We did a lot of good things throughout the road trip. We put the ball in play, and that started in St. Louis,” Cora said. “In this business everyone wants to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but certain moments you have to put the ball in play, and we did.

“The value of putting the ball in play was huge today,” he added. “And we’re going to keep preaching it.”

Early on it looked like the Rays might have a chance to salvage the finale, especially given Red Sox starter Brayan Bello’s difficulties out of the gate. Bello had trouble finding the strike zone, and much of what he did put over the plate got hammered for hard contact. Tampa Bay tagged him for three runs in the second, owing to two walks, a two-run single by Jose Caballero and an RBI groundout by Yandy Diaz.

Often after falling behind the Red Sox haven’t been able to mount a response, but Wednesday the club came back in a big way.

Having managed only one hit against Rays starter Ryan Pepiot entering the fifth, the Red Sox chased him from the game after their first three batters reached base. David Hamilton walked, Vaughn Grissom was hit by a pitch and Ceddanne Rafaela hit a scorched RBI single, which probably should have been a double if not for some confusion on the base paths.

No matter. Two batters later Wilyer Abreu singled to load the bases and then Wong tied the game with his two-run single. Refsnyder later put Boston in front with his RBI single and Dominic Smith capped off the rally with another RBI single.

But the Red Sox weren’t done. Boston scored three more times in the top of the sixth, with Rafaela first reaching on an error and then coming around to score from first on a Jarren Duran RBI double. Then Abreu delivered the exclamation mark, a towering two-run home run that made it 8-3.

“We’re always battling from the first inning on,” Abreu told NESN’s Jahmai Webster via translator Carlos Villoria Benitez. “Even if we fall behind we battle every single inning and we’ve been doing a great job with runners in scoring position the last few games and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Meanwhile, Bello settled down after his shaky start. He wound up posting four straight scoreless innings after allowing three in the second, including a dominant fifth inning on just five pitches after his teammates had given him the lead.

Bello ultimately allowed three runs over six innings on four hits, four walks and six strikeouts.

“I think he found the changeup, early on he didn’t have it,” Cora said. “Then he found his groove and the changeup was good.”

Tampa Bay did get a run back in the seventh, scoring on a Johnny DeLuca RBI single, but Cam Booser and Greg Weissert kept things in check otherwise. Diaz had what would have been a three-run home run fall just short at the warning track, and Weissert struck out Randy Arozarena and forced Brandon Lowe to ground out to escape the jam.

Diaz added a solo home run off Zack Kelly in the ninth, but that was as close as the Rays would get.

The Red Sox (26-24) have now won four straight after having previously lost five of their prior six games, and they now own a 1.5 game lead over the Rays (25-26) for third in the AL East. Boston will have an off-day Thursday before opening a three-game series at Fenway Park against the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers on Friday.

Cooper scratched

Originally slated to start at first base and bat sixth, Garrett Cooper was scratched from the lineup with right shoulder discomfort. He was replaced in the lineup by Dom Smith, who went 1 for 3 with an RBI single and a walk.