Tampa Bay goes to town on Boston with 21 hits.

BOSTON (AP) – The Tampa Bay Devil Rays simply outhit the best-hitting team in the majors.

Damian Rolls had a grand slam to highlight a seven-run fifth inning and the Devil Rays got a team-record 21 hits in beating the Boston Red Sox 15-9 Thursday.

Tampa Bay won despite allowing four homers to the Red Sox, who have a .295 team average and a .502 slugging percentage. The 1927 Yankees own the major league record with a .489 slugging percentage.

Boston also is on a pace to shatter the majors’ record for extra-base hits of 607, set by the 1997 Seattle Mariners.

“It seemed like after (Wednesday night) that the Red Sox could score big innings whenever they needed to,” Rolls said. “We knew that coming into today.”

Rolls’ first major league slam helped him drive in a career-high five runs. Antonio Perez also homered and had a career-best five RBIs as Tampa Bay matched its highest-scoring game of the season.

The Devil Rays led 11-2 after 41/2 innings and went on to end Boston’s five-game winning streak. Every Tampa Bay starter had at least one hit and had scored a run by the fifth.

“Even after it was 11-2, we felt like we still had to put them away,” Rolls said.

Boston has scored 49 runs in its last five games, heading into a weekend showdown with the AL East-leading Yankees.

“When the wind blows out, it becomes close to an impossible task to keep the other team from scoring, so you better keep scoring runs,” Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella said.

The Red Sox open a three-game series versus the Yankees in Fenway Park on Friday night. Pedro Martinez is scheduled to pitch the opener for Boston, which trails New York by 21/2 games.

“I think everybody knows how we respond to any kind of loss,” Boston manager Grady Little said. “We’ll get this one behind us and we’ll come back ready to go.”

Todd Walker hit a three-run homer and Manny Ramirez and Nomar Garciaparra each hit two-run homers for the Red Sox. Trot Nixon, who homered twice and drove in five runs in Boston’s 10-4 win Wednesday, added a solo shot.

The Devil Rays have hit the fewest homers in the AL.

“We just got our butts kicked today,” Boston catcher Jason Varitek said. “They went out and swung the bats.”

Victor Zambrano (7-5) won despite allowing four home runs in 6 2-3 innings. He gave up eight runs and seven hits.

The Devil Rays led 4-2 when Carl Crawford doubled with one out in the fifth and scored on a single by Perez. Aubrey Huff singled to chase Ramiro Mendoza (3-4) and Rocco Baldelli greeted reliever Chad Fox with an RBI single, making it 6-2.

After Travis Lee walked, Rolls hit the next pitch into the left-field seats.

Marlon Anderson kept the inning going with a double and scored on Julio Lugo’s single, increasing it to 11-2 before Fox ended it by getting Crawford to ground out.

Walker’s homer finished Zambrano and cut it to 11-8 in the seventh.

Perez had an RBI single in the eighth. Rolls, Anderson and Toby Hall each had run-scoring hits off reliever Mike Timlin in the ninth.

Nixon homered in the fifth and Garciaparra connected in the sixth.

Tampa Bay had erased a 2-0 deficit with a four-run third. Crawford had an RBI double and Perez hit the next pitch into the Green Monster seats.

The Red Sox jumped ahead 2-0 in the first on Ramirez’s homer.

Notes: The seven-run inning matched a season-high for Tampa Bay, and equaled the biggest allowed by the Red Sox. The Devil Rays did it July 20 against Texas. It was the third time Boston gave up a seven-run inning, the last was April 24 at Texas. … Rolls made a splendid, diving catch on Johnny Damon’s fifth-inning liner to right field. … Hall swung and missed in the seventh, and the bat snapped at the handle. … The Devil Rays scored 15 runs for the second in a week. They did it against Texas on Sunday. … Ramirez hit his 22nd career homer against Tampa Bay, the most by any player.

AP-ES-07-24-03 1724EDT