Kansas City, Mo. ? This was exactly the sort of victory the Kansas City Royals failed time after time to get for Tony Pena.

Clutch pitching from the bullpen. Good plays on defense. And, most of all, still-developing young players delivering key hits. It all added up to a rain-shortened 7-5 victory over Tampa Bay on Thursday night, Kansas City’s first since Pena resigned as manager Tuesday night.

“I’m sure Tony will be happy for us when he hears we won tonight,” said 22-year-old second baseman Ruben Gotay, who had an RBI single in the Royals’ two-run sixth that made it 7-5. “All he ever wanted was just for us to win.”

After a 1-hour, 36-minute delay at the start, the game was called with two outs in the top of the seventh following a 35-minute delay.

Emil Brown and John Buck each drove in two runs for Kansas City, which blew a 5-0 lead. The Royals’ 9-26 mark is still the worst in the major leagues as well as their franchise-worst after 35 games.

“I just wanted the guys to be aggressive,” said interim manager Bob Schaefer, a candidate to replace Pena full-time. “I was proud of the way they swung the bats and put some runs on the board. It was fun to watch.”

Rookie Mark Teahen’s RBI double off Lance Carter (1-1) broke a 5-all tie in the sixth, and Gotay then singled as the Devil Rays lost their seventh straight road game and the Royals snapped a six-game home losing streak.

Mike Wood (2-2) gained the win with 11/3 innings of hitless relief.

“Any win is good, especially in our situation,” said Buck, who had been mired in a 2-for-25 slump. “We put ourselves in a position to win, and a couple of things finally went our way. Hopefully, this will be the end of all that losing and bad play, and we can go from here.”

Kansas City Royals interim manager Bob Schaefer, left, chats with Tampa Bay skipper Lou Piniella before the game. The Royals defeated the Devil Rays, 7-5 in 61/2 innings, Thursday night at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

Brown, who was 7-for-30 in his previous 12 games and 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position, tripled, doubled and scored twice as the Royals built a 5-0 lead after three innings.

He tripled off rookie Scott Kazmir in the second, scoring Matt Stairs with the first run. He added an RBI double off Kazmir in the third.

Terrence Long walked after Brown’s triple, and Buck’s two-run double made it 3-0.

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Brown drove in a run in the fourth with a double, and Long broke an 0-for-19 slide with an RBI single.

“We knew the rain was coming, and we couldn’t push across another run,” Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella said. “It’s just bad pitching. And this is not the only game. We’ve had a slew of them.”