WASHINGTON -- Steven Souza Jr. hit a real home run over the fence and "a Little League home run."

Souza also made a fine diving catch in foul territory on a popup in the second inning and finished with three hits against his former team while four pitchers combined to allow just two hits as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Washington Nationals 5-0 on Wednesday night.

The game was delayed by rain for 27 minutes entering the bottom of the eighth.

It was the first game at Nationals Park for Souza since Sept. 28, when he made a highlight-reel catch in left center on the last day of the season for the final out in a no-hitter by then Washington teammate Jordan Zimmermann.

Souza, traded to Tampa Bay during the winter, had a single in his first at-bat against Zimmermann after he got a nice round of applause from the Washington fans.

"It was pretty emotional. To have them do that was pretty cool," Souza said.

The night got even more memorable when Souza slammed a solo homer in the fifth off Zimmermann to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.

"He is a competitor. He just left a couple of pitches over the middle," Souza said. "It is fun competing against your friend."

The first-place Rays (37-30) have won five of their last six games and the second-place Nationals (34-32) have lost seven of their last 11.

"He is an exciting young player," Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Souza, who leads the team with 13 homers. "What a nice applause the crowd gave him. He made an unbelievable play in foul territory and then came up and hit a home run."

Catcher Curt Casali had a career-high three hits with a homer for the Rays, who got a measure of revenge after allowing 23 hits in a 16-4 loss to Washington on Tuesday in Florida.

"It was nice to erase that game and move one. We got some big hits from Curt and the home run from Souza," Cash said.

Washington manager Matt Williams knows the laws of baseball might catch up with the Nationals.

"It happens. If I had the formula, if anybody had that formula, we'd certainly do something about it," Williams said. "We'd love to get 23 hits every day, score a whole bunch of runs. Unfortunately, the way baseball is, that doesn't happen."

Rays winning pitcher Matt Andriese (2-1), who entered the game in the third, allowed no runs and two hits in four innings before he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh.

Kevin Jepsen pitched a scoreless seventh and Ronald Belisario, just up from Triple-A, pitched the eighth and ninth.

"It did work out well for us," Cash said. "We tried to figure in a lot of different scenarios."

Tampa Bay made it 5-0 in the eighth as Souza reached on a bunt single against reliever Blake Treinen. Left fielder David DeJesus, who had singled, came around to score when Treinen threw the ball past first base and Souza scored on a throwing error by right fielder Bryce Harper.

Pitcher Chris Archer, who starts Thursday against the Nationals, was next to Souza in the clubhouse and called it "a Little League home run."

The Rays built the margin to 3-0 in the sixth as third baseman Evan Longoria, who had singled, scored when second baseman Logan Forsythe reached on an error by Washington shortstop Ian Desmond.

Zimmermann (5-5) escaped further damage by getting Souza to ground into a double play. But Zimmermann, who gave up three runs and eight hits in seven innings, lost his third straight start after not tasting defeat from April 19 to June 7.

"I thought it was OK," Zimmermann said of his outing. "A couple of home runs. I can live with that."

DeJesus and first baseman Jake Elmore added two hits each for the Rays.

The late-minute starting pitcher for the Rays was Steve Geltz, who is normally a reliever but got the start over Andriese. Cash said part of the reason for going with G