ST. PETERSBURG -- A three-game series between the Astros and the Rays has the makeup of a marquee prize fight.

Simply put, it’s the champions vs. the challengers. The reigning World Series winners vs. the team with the best record in baseball.

Monday’s opening round went the way of the challengers. Right-hander José Urquidy couldn’t hold a couple of early leads and was ultimately knocked out in a pivotal third inning in the Astros’ 8-3 defeat at Tropicana Field.

Urquidy entered the third with a 3-2 advantage but allowed four runs in that frame. The damage was partially Urquidy’s doing, as he issued consecutive two-out walks to Harold Ramírez and Isaac Paredes after the Rays tied the game on a Randy Arozarena sacrifice fly. 

However, Urquidy was on the precipice of escaping without any further damage -- twice. He held a two-strike count against the next two hitters, Josh Lowe and Christian Bethancourt. Although he couldn’t put either of them away, it wasn’t as if he made poor pitches, either.

His 1-2 changeup to Lowe was well off the plate, but the lefty batter punched it toward the center of the diamond and beat Mauricio Dubón’s throw to first for an RBI infield single. Tampa Bay added two more runs when Bethancourt singled on a slider that didn’t break much but was even further off the plate, dropping it into center field. 

Manager Dusty Baker said Bethancourt’s knock set the tone for the rest of the game. 

“That was big. [Urquidy] had him 0-2 and just couldn’t put him away,” Baker said.

That slider marked the end of Urquidy’s night. He permitted six runs on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings. The six earned runs tied a career high.

“They are hot,” Urquidy said of the Rays, who pace the Majors in runs (157) and OPS (.896) and have now set the Modern Era record with 14 consecutive home wins to begin a season.

“They are hitting a lot. I was trying to throw offspeed out of the zone, and a couple of hits were there. That happens in baseball, but they are super hot right now.”

It was the second straight bumpy outing for the 27-year-old from Mexico; he allowed four runs, seven hits and a couple of home runs in 4 1/3 innings a 4-2 loss to the Blue Jays on April 18. Coming into Monday, right-handed batters held a .333/.379/.517 slash line against Urquidy. Those numbers went up as Rays righties went 4-for-8 with a double and a triple on Monday.

How can Urquidy solve this problem?

“That’s a good question,” he said before expanding. “I think I have to throw more [inside] to them. I think most of the hits that they hit, they are away. I think I have to throw more inside. I have to practice throwing the sinkers into them.”

That may take some time, as the sinker made up only 12 percent of Urquidy’s repertoire entering Monday and hitters were batting .500 (6-for-12) against it. He threw only six sinkers out of 73 pitches Monday.

The Rays tacked on two more runs in the latter innings against Houston’s bullpen, snapping its scoreless-innings streak at 14 dating back to last Wednesday.

Houston’s offense, despite missing Yordan Alvarez in the middle of the order, pushed two runs across in the top of the first inning. Mauricio Dubón extended his hitting streak to 18 games -- the longest active streak in the Majors -- with a triple to left-center on the first pitch of the game. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Tucker, and Alex Bregman followed with his third homer of the year, turning around a 96 mph fastball on the inside corner from Rays starter Taj Bradley and sending it into the left-field seats.

Tampa Bay tied the score in the bottom half, but the Astros reclaimed the lead in the third when Jeremy Peña leveled a cutter from Bradley, launching it a Statcast-projected 432 feet to center field. The ball came off the bat at 107.6 mph, Peña’s second-hardest-hit ball this season. It was also the third-hardest-hit dinger of Peña’s career, including playoffs.

But that lead was short-lived.

“We jumped them early and then they came right back,” Baker said of the 20-3 Rays. “...They are swinging good. Up and down that lineup, looking at some of the averages up there, they are pretty good.

“It was a rough night for us.”