Red Sox center fielder Coco Crisp tries in vain to haul in a deep drive by Tampa’s Akinori Iwamura that resulted in a seventh-inning triple yesterday at Fenway Park.

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The Providence Journa / Mary Murphy

BOSTON — If the weekend was a test to see if Tampa Bay is ready to become a major player in the American League East, then the Rays failed. As evidenced by what happened in the last three days at Fenway, the Red Sox are not ready to move aside just yet.

As the Sox headed out last night for a 10-game, three-city road trip, they found themselves right where they want to be — back in control in their division.

Boston completed a three-game sweep, and a 5-1 homestand, with a 7-3 victory over Tampa Bay. After arriving in town in a virtual tie for the top, Tampa Bay is back to chasing the Sox once again.

While the Rays are the team that has made early news with so many young players developing into key contributors, it was the Red Sox who received much help from their younger players over the weekend. Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis all had big days yesterday. But the biggest star of all was Jon Lester.

The lefthander seems to be improving with each outing. He went six innings, allowing only one run and four hits. He struck out three and walked five as he evened his record at 2-2 and lowered his earned run average to 3.94.

“I’ve been figuring some things out this year, figuring out how to set guys up more, how to go to other pitches than what I think are my strengths, and get guys out,” Lester said. “So I think it’s more confidence than anything. I don’t know about maturing or anything like that, but I think I just have more confidence in my secondary stuff right now.”

In his last outing, a no-decision in a 1-0 victory over Toronto, he went often to his changeup. Yesterday, he only threw that pitch a few times. Instead, he used a two-seam fastball more than usual.

“We’ll take any good pitching performance from anybody on our staff, but it’s fun when you see the young guys, with some of the things they’ve been working on, take it into a game and then have success with it,” said manager Terry Francona.

“It was definitely a pitch that got them off of fastball in, cutter in,” Lester said of his two-seamer, which has more sink to it. “I kept the ball down, got some ground balls and some bad contact. That’s what you want.”

A sign of Lester’s maturity was that he struggled early, needing 52 pitches to get through the first two innings. The Rays had two base runners in each inning. But Lester got through without allowing a run and then was strong from there. The quiet, soft-spoken Lester spoke about how, even beyond his pitch selection, he has been urged to work more quickly.

“I’m trying not to take a lot of time out there to let bad thoughts get in my head and over-think things,” he said. “Get the ball back, get back up there, figure out what I want to throw next and go from there.”

The Sox beat a nemesis. Scott Kazmir began the day with the best earned-run average against Boston of any active pitcher with at least 100 innings. Kazmir had a 2.66 ERA in 18 previous starts against the Sox.

However, in his first start of the season after elbow problems, Kazmir struggled. He went only four innings and allowed six hits and four runs, three earned. The Sox got one in the first thanks to Ellsbury’s speed. He beat out an infield hit, moved up on a walk to Pedroia, advanced to third on the front end of a double steal and scored on a sacrifice fly by Youkilis.

Pedroia, Youkilis and Ramirez had consecutive hits (doubles by Pedroia and Ramirez) for two more runs in the third. The Sox made it 4-0 in the fourth when Coco Crisp singled, stole second, continued to third when the throw went into center and scored on Pedroia’s grounder to third.

The Rays drew as close as 4-3 before Youkilis made sure the Sox stayed ahead. Youkilis clouted a solo homer into the bleachers in the seventh and then doubled home two more runs in the eighth. His four RBI in the game tied his career high.

Boston also stole five bases, the most it has had in a game since 2002.

pkenyon@projo.com