ST. PETERSBURG -- As good as Austin Meadows has been this season, the Rays' All-Star is putting together one of his best stretches at the plate, and it couldn’t be coming at a better time for Tampa Bay.

With the Rays battling for one of the two spots in the American League Wild Card race, Meadows entered Thursday’s game slashing .538/.600/1.154 with two home runs and four RBIs in four games in September and has shown no signs of slowing down.

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On Thursday, Meadows was the hero yet again, delivering with the game-winning home run, a solo blast in the seventh inning, powering the Rays to a 6-4 win over the Blue Jays at Tropicana Field. The Rays are now a season-high 24 games over .500.

“He’s had an awesome season to date,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “Picked us up in many, many ways. He did it again tonight and hopefully it continues for some more weeks.”

In the first couple of innings, the Rays took advantage of a few defensive lapses by the Blue Jays. A Justin Smoak error in the fourth inning allowed Meadows to score to even the score at 1. Tampa Bay then used two sacrifice flies and a bases-loaded walk to jump out to a 4-2 lead.

On the mound, Austin Pruitt delivered a second consecutive solid outing, allowing just one run over five innings. In his last two starts, Pruitt has allowed just one run over 10 1/3 innings and has recorded 25 swings and misses.

Through six innings, it looked like the Rays were getting ready to turn it over to the backend of their bullpen for another win, but in the seventh inning, Blue Jays rookie Bo Bichette continued to torment Rays pitching, launching his second home run of the night, a two-run home run off Oliver Drake to tie the game at 4.

“I threw an entire inning to that guy,” Pruitt laughed. “That dude was a tough out today. [He] seems to be a pretty good player so far.”

Meadows, however, continued his recent hot stretch and launched his team-leading 27th home run off Buddy Boshers to put the Rays back on top, 5-4. The outfielder added an insurance run in the eighth with an RBI double to put the Rays ahead 6-4.

“I faced him earlier this year,” Meadows said. “I saw a lot of curveballs from him so I kind of knew that it was coming. ... So I was kind of sitting on the pitch and luckily I was able to get it out, and we were able to take the lead there.”

The 24-year old also continues to crush Blue Jays pitching this season. Meadows now has six home runs against Toronto, which is the most he has against any AL East opponent.

Overall, in his last five games, Meadows is hitting .588 and 15 of his last 21 hits have gone for extra bases. His 27 home runs are fourth in club history for a player under the age of 25 and he is on pace to hit 31 home runs, which would be the second most by a Rays player behind Evan Longoria (33) in 2009.

“I’m just simplifying things,” Meadows said. “I’m going up there and trying to see the ball and hit the ball. That’s usually when you do your best, when you’re simplifying and don’t think too much up there. Things are going well right now.”

Tampa Bay has now won seven of its last eight games, creating some separation in the Wild Card race with the Indians losing to the White Sox on Thursday. The Rays remain a half-game ahead of the A’s for the top Wild Card spot, and are now 1 1/2 games in front of the Indians.

“Teams have been playing us pretty tough lately,” Meadows said. “The pitching has been really good. We just continue to grind and continue to get out there and win games, because that’s the important thing right now.”