ST. PETERSBURG -- Through six innings, the Rays' offense was sleepwalking. Then, suddenly, they made a powerful statement.

The Rays woke up with a pair of seventh-inning home runs Friday night at Tropicana Field, igniting a 7-4 comeback victory against the Mariners and allowing them to keep pace in the American League East race. The Rays (86-56) are a season-high 30 games over .500.

• Games remaining: vs. SEA (2), at MIN (3), at BAL (4), vs. LAA (3), vs. TOR (3), at BOS (2), at TOR (3)
• Standings update: The Orioles (89-51) hold a four-game lead over the Rays (86-56) in the AL East. Tampa Bay remains the top AL Wild Card team, the club that gets to host a best-of-three Wild Card Series against the AL¡¯s No. 5 seed, with a 6 1/2-game lead over Seattle.

Designated hitter Harold Ram¨ªrez gave the Rays the lead for good with a two-out, two-run blast to left field off Mariners reliever Isaiah Campbell. Earlier in the inning, Rays catcher Ren¨¦ Pinto, the No. 9 hitter, tied the game with a two-run shot off Mariners starter George Kirby.

Third baseman Isaac Paredes padded the advantage in the eighth with a solo shot, his 29th homer.

The Rays are 47-12 this season when they hit two or more homers.

¡°You have to appreciate who¡¯s on the mound and who we¡¯re facing,¡± Rays manager Kevin Cash said. ¡°We¡¯re facing a team that can really pitch. It feels like throughout the course of the season, we¡¯ve had a lot of ups and downs. Maybe this game will help us get going a little bit where we can be more productive earlier in ballgames.¡±

The Rays were relatively silent with just three hits over six innings while trailing, 4-2. But with one out in the seventh, Jose Siri doubled down the left-field line, then stole third. On a 1-2 pitch, Pinto deposited the game-tying two-run homer over the short corner fence in left field, chasing Kirby out of the game and setting the stage for Ram¨ªrez's go-ahead shot.

Pinto, who had homered in two of his past three games entering Friday, fell behind Kirby 0-2 and took a pitch inside before fouling off a couple more. Cash appreciated the battle.

¡°Ren¨¦ has done some pretty good things here lately with the bat in his hands,¡± Cash said.

¡°I¡¯m just taking this day by day,¡± Pinto said. ¡°I got the pitch I wanted, got it in the air and it was a homer. This team keeps fighting. We don¡¯t stop fighting until the 27th out.¡±

For Ram¨ªrez, it was an equally significant moment. It was his first homer since June 8 against Minnesota, ending a career-high 55-game homerless drought. It was his first go-ahead homer in the seventh inning or later since 2019.

¡°We¡¯re not looking for Harold to hit home runs. ¡­ We¡¯re looking for him to have good at-bats and pick up big hits with guys on base,¡± Cash said. ¡°He has done that really, really well this year.¡±

The Rays broke out, 2-0, in the first, taking advantage of uncharacteristic wildness from Kirby, who hadn¡¯t walked a batter in his previous five starts and came in with an MLB-leading 10.36 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Kirby walked leadoff batter Yandy D¨ªaz, then hit Ram¨ªrez with one out before surrendering another walk to Randy Arozarena, filling the bases.

Paredes¡¯ sky-high popper, which nearly grazed one of the Trop¡¯s catwalks, was lost by a trio of Mariners fielders, and it dropped in short left field for an RBI single. After Josh Lowe followed with a sacrifice fly, it was 2-0.

The Rays couldn¡¯t hold the lead, though. Right-hander Taj Bradley was touched for six hits -- three solo home runs and three doubles -- over 6 1/3 innings.

After his messy first inning, Kirby retired 16 of his next 18 batters. But the Rays¡¯ offense finally came alive in the seventh to take control. And that was appreciated by Bradley.

¡°It was great to see Ren¨¦ put together an at-bat like that, fouling off breaking pitches and stuff like that,¡± Bradley said. ¡°Off the bat, it¡¯s a home run and the bench is clapping, cheering and screaming. I just gave him a big hug when he came in. That was the guy I was working with the whole game, and I was excited.

¡°I wasn¡¯t mad about the [solo] homers, because those don¡¯t beat you. We just had to hold them and come back.¡±

And the Rays did just that.