ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Though the Yankees are surrounded by uncertainty as they deal with a COVID outbreak that has hit their coaching and support staff, they are playing their best baseball of the season.

The Yankees won their fourth straight game with a 1-0 victory over the Rays at Tropicana Field on Wednesday, with a chance to finish off a rare sweep Thursday.

“There’s a lot obviously swirling around us,’’ manager Aaron Boone said, with his team dealing with seven COVID cases. “There are easy distractions and unknowns when you wake up, but when it comes time to come out and perform, the focus has been excellent.”

Particularly from Gerrit Cole, who was masterful.

He struck out 12 in eight shutout innings, making the lone Yankees’ run hold up, while Aroldis Chapman earned the save with a scoreless ninth.

“He’s an ace,’’ Boone said of Cole. ”An absolute bulldog. I think he lives for pitching when it’s tough, in the biggest of games. In a 1-0 game, we needed all of it.”

With the victory, the Yankees beat Tampa Bay in back-to-back games for the first time since July 2019 and have won three consecutive series over Houston, Washington and the Rays.

“I don’t think there are any messages right now,’’ Boone said of his team’s attitude. “The bottom line is we had a tough start and first couple weeks and now we’re starting to find our stride.’’

Aaron Hicks drove in the run in the top of the seventh with a sacrifice fly. Aaron Judge led off the inning with a single and Gio Urshela followed with a booming double off the wall in right-center. Judge was motoring toward third when bench coach Carlos Mendoza — filling in as third base coach while Phil Nevin battles COVID — stopped him there.

Against a drawn-in infield, Luke Voit hit a hard grounder to third for the first out. Ryan Thompson was replaced by Jeffrey Springs, and Hicks came through with a fly ball to center on an 0-2 slider for the game’s only run.

On the other side, Cole was dominant, pitching past the seventh inning for the first time this season.

He gave up four hits and hasn’t allowed a walk since his third start of the year.

Cole pitched around some bad luck in the bottom of the first.

Austin Meadows hit a fly ball to right with one out that hit the B-ring catwalk, which is in play. It landed in short right for a double, but Cole got the next two batters to strand Meadows.

Randy Arozarena drilled a one-out double off the left-field wall in the sixth. Arozarena moved to third on a groundout by Meadows. Cole then got Manuel Margot swinging on a 3-2 pitch to end the threat.

Cole retired the final eight batters he faced and struck out the side in the eighth before being pulled after 106 pitches — five short of his season-high.

Boone then went to Chapman for the fourth time in five days — a rarity in the Yankees’ bullpen.

Boone said he discussed it with his closer prior to the game, and they would only go to Chapman in a save situation.

Facing the top of the Rays’ lineup, Chapman got Arozarena and fanned Mike Brosseau — who Chapman nearly hit in the head last September and who took him deep in Game 5 of the ALDS to end the Yankees’ season — before getting Margot to end it.

The Yankee offense — without Gleyber Torres, who was held out of the lineup out of an “abundance of caution” as the Yankees awaited further test results — didn’t do much.

Judge’s single with two outs in the fourth was their first base runner and he scored the game’s only run, which Cole and Chapman made count.

“Any time you get to play right now, it’s just a nice release,’’ Cole said. “The only thing we have to focus on [then] is playing, so in a sense, it’s kind of simpler for us. You’ve got to focus on winning the game. It takes our minds off everything that’s happened the last few days.”