Tampa Bay Rays power their way to series win vs. Cleveland Indians

CLEVELAND -- The Tampa Bay Rays lead the American League in home runs and striking out, and they did plenty of both in a three-game series that ended Wednesday at Progressive Field.

The Rays struck out 10 times, bringing their three-game total to 40, but they also hit three more home runs in a 7-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

"We're hopeful the strikeouts will eventually come down, but so far the tradeoff has been pretty good," Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said.

The Rays sent a franchise record by hitting 10 home runs in the three-game series, including eight in the last two games, both wins.

"They hit a lot of home runs and they strike out a lot, but in this series the home runs outdid the strikeouts," Cleveland manager Terry Francona said.

Alex Cobb (4-3) pitched seven strong innings, giving up three runs on six hits with seven strikeouts and one walk.

"This is the best I've felt since I came back from my surgery. I was able to get to another level of aggressiveness," said Cobb, who missed all of the 2015 season and most of last season while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

Corey Dickerson, Logan Morrison and Jesus Sucre all homered for the Rays. Dickerson, who leads the American League in hits, belted three home runs in the last two games of the series, and is hitting .404 in his last 11 games.

"He's doing everything offensively," Cash said. "He's not your typical leadoff hitter, with that kind of power, but he's doing a good job of igniting our offense."

Cleveland starter Josh Tomlin (2-5) lasted just 2 2/3 innings, giving up six runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

Tomlin had an odd outing.

After giving up a single to Dickerson leading off the game, Tomlin struck out the next five batters in a row. Then he gave up hits to the next four batters, including a three-run home run by Dickerson, in the Rays' four-run second inning. Tomlin retired two in a row, but gave up hits to the next two hitters, including Morrison's home run, and was removed from the game.

"I didn't want to take him out, but too many balls were being hit out of the park," Francona said.

"Poorly executed pitches," Tomlin said. "Then they started smelling blood and were swinging at everything and I left some pitches over the heart of the plate."

Tampa Bay led 6-0 after the top of the third inning.

Cobb retired the first six batters he faced in order, but Cleveland scored twice in the third inning.

Lonnie Chisenhall led off with a double, and he scored on a double off the left field wall by rookie Bradley Zimmer. It was the first major league hit and RBI for Zimmer, who was called up from Triple-A Columbus on Tuesday.

An RBI double by Michael Brantley in the fifth inning cut the Tampa Bay lead to 6-3, and Zimmer's first major league home run, in the ninth inning off Alex Colome, accounted for Cleveland's final run.

The game ended when center fielder Kevin Kiermaier robbed Jason Kipnis of a potential home run by making the catch just in front the fence.

It was a rousing finish to a successful road trip for the Rays, who went 4-2 on a trip to Boston and Cleveland.

"That's a challenging task to come here and Boston and come away with a winning record," Cash said.

"We're coming out of this trip on a huge high," Cobb said. "We've shown signs of what we're capable of doing. You can see the talent is there."

NOTES: Rays 2B Brad Miller missed his second consecutive game due to a strained abdominal muscle. ... In Tuesday's game, 3B Evan Longoria broke Carl Crawford's franchise record for most career at bats in Rays' history. Longoria has 5,001 career at bats, which is a club record. The previous record was 4,992 by Carl Crawford. Longoria is also Tampa Bay's career leader in home runs, RBIs, doubles, extra base hits and total bases, and he needs three more walks to pass Ben Zobrist (542) for the franchise record in that category. ... An MRI done on Indians OF Abraham Almonte confirmed that he has a high-grade strain to his right biceps tendon. Almonte, who was placed on the disabled list Tuesday, is expected to miss three to five weeks. ... Indians DH Edwin Encarnacion, who led the American League with 127 RBI last year while with Toronto, is hitting .108 with runners in scoring position this year (4-for-37).