BOSTON — The Red Sox haven’t been a good power hitting team this season, and they have especially struggled with the long ball at Fenway Park. Coming into Friday’s game the club was tied for last in MLB with just seven homers at home, a shockingly low figure for a club that has historically been built to take advantage of the old ballpark’s unique dimensions. But Friday night, the Red Sox ...

Boston Red Sox right fielder Wilyer Abreu is congratulated on his solo HR in the third as the Red Sox take on Rays at Fenway.

Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald/TNS

BOSTON — The Red Sox haven’t been a good power hitting team this season, and they have especially struggled with the long ball at Fenway Park. Coming into Friday’s game the club was tied for last in MLB with just seven homers at home, a shockingly low figure for a club that has historically been built to take advantage of the old ballpark’s unique dimensions.

But Friday night, the Red Sox brought a little bit of thunder.

Though the Red Sox only managed four hits as a team, the club went deep twice in Friday’s 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela delivered a pair of solo shots while Connelly Early tossed one of the best games of his career, throwing a career-high seven shutout innings to help snap the Rays’ seven-game win streak.

Early came out of the gate strong and retired six of the first seven batters he faced, but the rookie ran into a major jam in the third when he allowed two straight singles and a hit by pitch to load the bases with nobody out.

From that point Early needed only six pitches to escape unscathed, first striking out Ryan Vilade before forcing Rays superstar Junior Caminero to ground into an inning-ending double play.

On the other side, the Red Sox couldn’t string together any consistent offense against Rays right-hander Jesse Scholtens, but unlike many games this season the club was able to pop a few out to put some runs on the board anyway. Abreu was first when he took Scholtens deep to the right field stands on a 1-2 slider with two outs in the third, and Rafaela followed on a first-pitch sweeper with one out in the fourth that went to the Green Monster seats.

Those were the only two hits allowed by Scholtens over the course of his 4 2/3 innings of work, though he also walked four, giving the Red Sox opportunities in the first and fifth innings as well that went by the wayside.

Regardless, Early made sure that 2-0 lead held up.

Over his last four innings Early retired 12 of the last 14 batters he faced, allowing just a fifth-inning single and a seventh-inning walk while denying Tampa Bay the ability to cause havoc on the base paths.

Early finished with eight strikeouts while allowing four hits and one walk over his seven scoreless innings. He threw 96 pitches, tying a career high, and his 70 strikes were the most thrown by any Red Sox pitcher in a game so far this season.

By pitching deep into the game, Early was able to set up the back end of the Red Sox bullpen for a clean finish. Garrett Whitlock sent the Rays down 1-2-3 in the eighth, and Aroldis Chapman finished things out in the ninth for his eighth save of the season.

Friday marked the second time in three games the Red Sox won despite recording four hits as a group, but at this point the club will take wins however they can get them as they continue to fight their way out of the basement. With the win the Red Sox are now 17-22 on the season and can ensure no worse than a series split with another victory on Saturday.

Payton Tolle (1-1, 2.04) will get the ball against Rays right-hander Nick Martinez (3-1, 1.71). First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m.