ST. PETERSBURG -- The next six months will prove whether the Rays were right to bet on their lineup this offseason, but the first two games have them feeling pretty good about what they’re capable of.

Tampa Bay’s bats all but disappeared amid a disappointing finish last year. After not securing a veteran upgrade over the winter, the team insisted that better health, plus bounce-back and breakthrough performances, would lead to more offense this season. The Rays provided plenty of it on Saturday at Tropicana Field, scoring early and often in a confidence-boosting, 12-2 romp over the Tigers.

“That was a fun game,” manager Kevin Cash said. “They're not going to be like that all the time. We know that. But it is nice when, early in the season like it is right now, there's a lot of guys in that clubhouse that feel good about their at-bats, and that's what you want.”

The top of the lineup put the Rays on the board immediately, as Yandy Díaz reached on an infield single, Brandon Lowe lined a single to center field and then Randy Arozarena smashed an RBI double to right-center off Tigers starter Spencer Turnbull in the first inning. But it all came together for Tampa Bay in a seven-run third inning.

The Rays sent 13 batters to the plate, compiled six hits (including four doubles), worked two walks and were hit by two pitches as three different Tigers pitchers combined to throw 48 pitches during the 27-minute inning. By the time it was over, the Rays had matched the 2022 club’s highest-scoring frame of the season -- seven runs in the ninth inning last Aug. 7, also against Detroit.

Jose Siri had the first big hit of the third, a two-run double down the left-field line. Josh Lowe smacked another two-run double to right. Francisco Mejía tacked on an RBI single to center and scored on Díaz’s ground-rule double to right. After hitting a double earlier in the inning, Wander Franco capped the scoring with a single to right.

“It's good to see everything kind of come together like we had planned it,” Brandon Lowe said. “We've talked about it all spring. We've talked about it the whole offseason that, [if] we get our guys back healthy, we let our guys kind of mature a little bit and understand their approach a little bit more, we're still going to be one of the best teams here. And I think we're starting to prove that so far.”

They weren’t done, either. In the sixth, Díaz crushed a cutter from reliever Tyler Alexander out to left field for his first home run of the season, a two-run shot that came off his bat at 112.8 mph. After trotting through a tunnel of teammates in the dugout, the muscular infielder -- who finished a triple shy of the cycle in a three-RBI, three-run game -- broke out a new celebratory move: pretending to rock a baby in his arms in anticipation of his first child, due in July.

Franco, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs of his own, put the finishing touches on the Rays’ offensive eruption with a two-run double in the seventh.

“It's always good to win,” Díaz said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “We're all going to have bad moments. We're all going to have good moments in this game. So to start off on a high note is always going to feel good."

There were a couple more feel-good moments for Tampa Bay on Saturday: reliever Kevin Kelly’s two-inning Major League debut, followed by a postgame beer shower in the clubhouse, and the Rays debut of starter Zach Eflin.

Eflin picked up the win after allowing just one run and pounding the strike zone with six different pitches over five strong innings. Making the moment more special, Eflin was pitching in his first official game after becoming a father of three.

Eflin’s wife, Lauren, gave birth to twin girls -- Hallie and Austin -- on March 22. The babies are still in the neonatal intensive care unit, doing well, but Lauren was able to be in attendance along with their young daughter and many more family members and friends.

The only thing that didn’t go according to plan? The Rays’ third-inning rally went on so long; Eflin had to retreat to the batting cages and throw just to stay fresh. He wasn’t complaining, though.

“You never root against runs,” Eflin said, smiling. “You love watching those guys go to work and put runs on the board."