ST. PETERSBURG -- That was the Nathan Eovaldi the Red Sox have been looking for.

Powerful and in control, the righty pitched Boston to a 7-4 victory over the postseason-hunting Rays on Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field.

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This was Eovaldi’s first win in the 11 starts he’s made this season.

“My fastball location felt really good,” said Eovaldi. “I started elevating the fastball up and Juan [Centeno] back there behind the plate, I felt like he did a really good job calling the game. He’s been catching my bullpens and things like that, using the curveball with the high fastball started to play a lot better.”

Things have been disjointed in 2019 for the righty, who had elbow surgery in April and then tried to get comfortable in an unfamiliar bullpen role when he returned in July and was slow to get back in a groove once he became a starter again on Aug. 18.

Eovaldi generated 20 swings and misses in his 100 pitches -- the most whiffs he’s gotten in any outing since 2014.

“He did an outstanding job mixing up pitches,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “Used the breaking ball a little bit more, especially in the second part of the outing. The fastball, he elevated a few pitches. They put some good swings, the first few at-bats and then after that, kind of went to places with the fastball. We liked where he went. He did an outstanding job.”

With Eovaldi owed a total of $51 million over the next three seasons, it was crucial for the pitcher to show some progress, and for the Red Sox to see some entering the offseason.

It was with that in mind that Cora -- after Sunday’s game was over -- gave Eovaldi the option of skipping his final start of the regular season.

“I asked him how he feels for the next one,” said Cora. “He was like, ‘I want it. I want to build off this one.’ Those are good signs. Physically he’s in a good place. Tampa Bay has a good lineup, they loaded up with all those lefties. He did an outstanding job and it’s good to see him finishing the season strong.”

The quality start was Eovaldi’s first since April 17 -- his final start before surgery. In fact, it was the first time he was able to go six innings since then. He did so with a balanced arsenal that included 38 fastballs, 25 curveballs, 23 cutters, 10 splitters and four sliders.

Eovaldi did give up a run in each of his first three innings but finished strong with three straight zeros. He walked two and struck out six.

Mid-game, pitching coach Dana LeVangie helped Eovaldi with a mechanical adjustment that boosted his success for the rest of the day.

“Early on, he was a little quick through his delivery. Made a big-time adjustment, settled down, good tempo, good rhythm, mixed his pitches really effectively from [the] third inning on,” said LeVangie. “He used his breaking ball, was using his split, slowed down the hitters because they were attacking hard. A lot of foul balls. But once he was able to slow ‘em down, he took full command of that game. It was fun.”

Cora had been talking for weeks about how Eovaldi needed to do a better job of elevating with his fastball, so critical to his success last season. The way LeVangie explains it, even more went into Sunday’s turnaround.

“Elevation is good,” said LeVangie. “It plays. But the one thing that helps elevation is you have to get [the opposition] on something soft. You have to slow him down. You have to create some depth in the strike zone. Once he was able to, he really took off. Throwing strikes with the breaking ball early. Being able to change the eye level underneath the zone gets their eyes shifted down so it helps you pitch up.”

The Red Sox allowed him to pitch from ahead, as they jumped on Rays lefty Ryan Yarbrough for four runs in the first inning, including a three-run homer by Christian Vázquez.

Eovaldi will make his final start of the regular season on Friday night against the Orioles, hoping to build more momentum.

“Yeah, kind of building off the game today and going into this next one, I want to finish up [strong],” said Eovaldi. “I felt like I’ve missed so much time as it is now and I just want to be able to make every start that I can and finish on a strong note and go into the offseason and next year healthy and picking up where we left off.”