Yankees fall to Rays as ex-teammate Corey Kluber quiets offense

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When DJ LeMahieu led off Saturday with a double, Aaron Judge followed with a single and Anthony Rizzo lofted a sacrifice fly, it sure looked as if the Yankees were on their way to a fifth consecutive win — and third straight over the Rays.

But after the offense went silent following those first three batters and ex-Yankee Corey Kluber matched Gerrit Cole inning-for-inning, it was the Yankees’ bullpen that faltered in a 3-1 loss to their AL East rivals in front of an announced sellout crowd of 25,025 at Tropicana Field.

“Tough one,’’ manager Aaron Boone said of the loss after the Rays scratched out a run off Cole in the sixth and another off Lucas Luetge in the seventh to take their first lead of the series.

That came after Cole held Tampa Bay hitless until there were two outs in the fifth, when Francisco Mejia singled up the middle.

The game really changed, though, with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

Cole had retired 14 in a row and got ahead of Ji-Man Choi 0-2 before the first baseman fought back to a full count. Cole then threw a 98 mph four-seam fastball that the Yankees thought caught the upper outside corner of the strike zone, which would have ended the inning with the Yankees up by a run.

Instead, home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso called it a ball and the inning continued.

Cole said he had no doubt it was a strike, but added it didn’t impact him as the rest of the inning unfolded.

The right-hander walked Wander Franco on four pitches, not wanting to make a mistake to the switch-hitter with two right-handers next in the lineup.

Cole then gave up a bloop single to Randy Arozarena to score Choi from second and tie the score at 1-1.

“Kind of a bummer,’’ Cole said.

Luetge took over to start the bottom of the seventh and gave up a ground ball single to Kevin Kiermaier and a bloop double down the right field line to Mejia that fell between Gleyber Torres and Joey Gallo.

“When it first went up, I said, ‘Oh no,’ ” Boone said. “It was in no-man’s land. It looked to me like Gleyber made a pretty good break on it. It kind of landed in a perfect spot.”

With the infield in, pinch-hitter Harold Ramirez grounded to first and Rizzo threw Kiermaier out at home, with Mejia staying at second.

Michael King came on to face Taylor Walls, the infielder who on Thursday had called the Yankees “very beatable.”

Walls grounded to second and the Yankees got the force-out, but Walls beat the throw to first to extend the inning for Yandy Diaz, whose chopper to third went for a run-scoring infield hit to put Tampa Bay up, 2-1.

“I didn’t get the job done,” King said. “Yeah, it was soft contact, but there are times when you need strikeouts and swing-and-misses and I didn’t get it.”

In the eighth, Isiah Kiner-Falefa reached on a two-out single and Aaron Hicks pinch-hit for Jose Trevino. The struggling Hicks whiffed to end the inning.

The Rays tacked on a run in the bottom of the eighth thanks in part to a leadoff triple from Franco off King.

LeMahieu, who returned from a left wrist injury, said he would have preferred the Yankees add more runs in that first inning against Kluber.

“He wasn’t giving us a whole lot to hit,” LeMahieu said. “I wish we could have got more going against him and forced him to throw the ball over the plate a little bit more, but he made good pitches.”

After Rizzo’s sacrifice fly, Gleyber Torres lined out to right and Judge was doubled off first on the play. The Yankees didn’t get another runner in scoring position against Kluber and a trio of relievers.

“Corey was on and everybody they brought in was on,” Cole said.

And for a day, the Yankees weren’t.