ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays had waited weeks for a game like this. As their hitters scuffled and slumped at the plate, they maintained that they were one big outburst away from getting their inconsistent lineup back on track. They managed to hold their own, with strong pitching and defense and just enough offense to support it, but the breakout never came.

Until Wednesday night, that is.

The Rays put together their best offensive performance of the season in an 11-3 rout of the Cardinals at Tropicana Field, setting a season high in runs, hits (18) and doubles (seven) while receiving contributions from up and down the lineup on a designated bullpen day for St. Louis. Each of Tampa Bay’s starting nine hitters produced at least one hit, Manuel Margot had a four-hit night in which he was on base five times, and Ji-Man Choi and Randy Arozarena recorded three hits apiece.

“Good for those guys that have been grinding through it here a little bit as of late,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Really impressed with our offense and impressed that they've been able to kind of withstand a tough stretch.”

The eight-run win tied the Rays’ largest margin of victory this season, matching their 8-0 win over the Orioles on April 10, and returned them to 10 games over .500 at 33-23.

It wasn’t quite as dramatic or emotional as Tuesday night, when the Rays waited until the last pitch to celebrate Taylor Walls’ walk-off homer off the right-field foul pole. But after weeks spent grinding out at-bats and searching for offense, it was just the kind of night they needed.

“I think we need to have 100 more days of these,” Arozarena said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “Joking aside, I think that it's a tough game, so we're doing everything we can to hopefully be on the winning side of things. … The preparation and the work that the players do, we're doing a good job.”

Over their previous 12 games, the Rays had scored 38 runs while batting just .184. They hadn’t scored more than three runs in half of those games, and they scored two runs or fewer in a third of them. It’s been a team-wide funk without any obvious answers, but Tampa Bay's players believe the club will come out of it. Perhaps Wednesday was just the start.

“There's more than hope. There's a lot of confidence with this group,” Cash said. “We're running a lot of very talented young players out there right now that we owe it to them -- and certainly ourselves -- to do everything we can to be patient with them.”

Indeed, the Rays can’t rely on returning reinforcements to save their scuffling lineup right away. Slugging second baseman Brandon Lowe is hoping to pick up a bat Friday for the first time since being diagnosed with a stress reaction in his lower back. Star shortstop Wander Franco is still receiving treatment and easing his way back from a strained right quad. In other words, they need more from the hitters they have.

They got plenty Wednesday night.

“Hopefully we can keep on playing like we played today,” Arozarena said through Navarro after tying a career high with four RBIs. “That's kind of what the goal always is, but it's a tough game. You can't always have good games like we did today.”

The Rays jumped on the Cardinals right away and didn’t let up. They scored three runs in the first inning on RBI doubles from Choi, Arozarena and Vidal Bruján, who had two hits and drove in three runs, then tacked on another run in the second on Harold Ramírez’s RBI double and one more in the third on a Bruján grounder.

St. Louis chased starter Corey Kluber and pulled within two runs in the sixth inning, but reliever Jason Adam immediately defused the situation with a double-play grounder and a flyout. Rather than letting the Cardinals hang around, the Rays blew the game wide open.

With one run already on the board in the sixth, one out and the bases loaded, Arozarena hit a ball back to the mound, giving reliever T.J. McFarland plenty of time to record the force out at home. But McFarland instead threw the ball to first base, and Ramírez scored. Bruján drove in another run to make it 8-3.

“I’m not saying that’s the reason I thought there was one out, but I think I looked at the scoreboard at some point and saw [one out]. Still, that’s on me, and I’ve got to talk to [catcher Andrew Knizner] and say, ‘Hey, do we have one out or two?’” McFarland said. “I normally just do that, but I thought 100 percent that there were two outs.”

The Rays scored three more runs in the seventh on singles by Choi and Arozarena.

The only Cardinals pitcher they couldn’t solve? Catcher Yadier Molina, who put up a zero in the eighth. Even that inning, when the future Hall of Famer struck out Isaac Paredes, gave the Rays something to smile about.

“Everyone was having fun,” Choi said through interpreter Daniel Park.