ST. PETERSBURG — Taylor Walls ripped a bases-clearing triple into the right-center-field gap off a 97 mph fastball to break open a tie game in the fourth inning, lifting the Tampa Bay Rays to their seventh straight series win and improving their record to 30-15.

Walls, hitting ninth, jumped on the first pitch from Miami right-hander Eury Pérez with the bases loaded and two outs, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 Rays lead they would not relinquish. The shortstop carries a .387 career batting average with the bases loaded — 40 RBIs in 31 at-bats with a 1.100 OPS in those situations.

“Go tell [Rays manager Kevin] Cash to put me in at cleanup,” Walls said with a smile.

“I’ve been trying to be aggressive early to a certain spot,” Walls said. “I took one right down the middle in my first at-bat, and that kind of gave me the sights of where I needed to have it, especially early in the count. I just wanted to go up there being aggressive, and it was a pitch very identical [to the first at-bat].”

Rays manager Kevin Cash called the hit pivotal. “For Wallsy to find a gap up there and clear the bases, it was massive,” Cash said. “He wants to do well for every opportunity. He knows when he comes up in those situations, it’s huge to get that type of production, whether he’s hitting eighth or ninth. He has been having a lot of good at-bats here lately.”

Right-hander Drew Rasmussen (4-1) earned the victory, allowing two runs over 5 1/3 innings. “Taylor’s own awareness [offensively] has been incredible [lately],” Rasmussen said. “We usually talk about how great the defense is, but with what his bat has been doing, it has been a really fun couple of weeks to watch.”

Tampa Bay, now 16-5 at home this season, got solo home runs from Junior Caminero — a Statcast-projected 372-foot shot to left in the first inning — and Yandy Díaz, who launched a 426-foot blast to center. Caminero also drew a two-out bases-loaded walk off reliever Tyler Phillips in the sixth, pushing the lead to 6-2.

Miami applied pressure with 11 hits and five stolen bases but went just 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position. The Rays turned two double plays with runners aboard, and left-handed reliever Ian Seymour snuffed an eighth-inning rally by getting pinch-hitter Heriberto Hernández — who had hit a Statcast-projected 439-foot pinch-hit homer the previous game — on a bases-loaded liner to Walls at shortstop.

“Kind of a full-circle moment,” Seymour said of facing Hernández, a former Minor League teammate in the Rays’ system. “The goal is to win every series, and if you do that, you’re going to be in a great position to play meaningful baseball. It just seems like every day, we have each other’s backs. That gives you the freedom to go out there and be your best.”

Cash praised the club’s overall execution. “Those [double plays] were highlight-worthy,” Cash said. “I feel like we’re representing ourselves very, very well. We’re doing the little things right. The combination of the three guys kind of sitting in the middle [Caminero, Díaz, Jonathan Aranda], then all the traffic created around them allows us to score some runs. We’re a good team.”

Walls, for his part, credited a simple approach. “I feel like a lot of times, it’s easy to try to do too much or overdo things in those situations,” Walls said. “Most of the time, I’m trying to do less. I’m just trying to focus on … being aggressive to a pitch in a certain location, and that’s really it.”

The Rays continue their homestand with a new series beginning at Tropicana Field later this week.