ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As the lights high above Tropicana Field’s fake playing surface remained dark, you wondered what it would mean for the final inning of what had been a scintillating game between the Yankees and Rays.

Thanks to two runs in the fifth off Blake Snell and another via a wild pitch in the eighth, the Yankees held a two-run lead entering what they hoped would be the final inning Sunday to give them two wins in three games against the AL East leaders.

Then the power went out and stayed that way for 43 minutes. When the juice was restored, the Yankees’ muscles appeared to receive a jolt from the main switch that controlled the electrical feed because they responded by scoring four runs in the ninth that sealed a 7-1 victory that was witnessed by 25,025, which amounts to a sellout in a venue that has outlived its usefulness.

“I have never been through something like that, that went so long to complete an at-bat,” said Thairo Estrada, who had an 0-1 count on him when the lights came back in the ninth.

Estrada had an 0-2 count when he drove an Austin Pruitt pitch into the right-field seats to hike the lead to 4-1. Three more runs on Gio Urshela’s two-run double and Brett Gardner’s sacrifice fly enabled the Yankees to take two of three from the Rays and move within a half-game of the AL East leaders with their 16th win in 22 games.

“I was looking for something good in the zone that I could connect,’’ said Estrada, who started at short so Gleyber Torres’s sore right arm could rest.

Friday night the lights at the outdated ballpark flickered and went out for 15 seconds. That wasn’t the case Sunday.

After the lights returned, third-base umpire Laz Diaz approached the Yankees’ third-base dugout wanting to know how much time the players were going to need to be ready.

“He basically signaled me out and said, ‘Gardy you are so old, how much time do you need to get going?’ ” said Gardner, who didn’t start against lefty Blake Snell but singled in the eighth and had the sac fly in the ninth.

Across the first four innings, Snell dominated the Yankees and had the coaches talking among themselves.

“Snell had it going. He had all his pitches and was able to strike his breaking ball, the changeup was good and he had the chase breaking ball,’’ Boone said of last year’s AL Cy Young Award winner, who struck out 10 in the first four innings, including six straight from the first to third inning. “He was pitching like the Cy Young Award winner.’’

The mystery of Snell (3-4) started to crack in the fifth when Austin Romine doubled with two outs and scored on Mike Tauchman’s two-bagger that hit the top of the center-field wall. DJ LeMahieu singled home Tauchman for a 2-0 lead.

While Snell was more electric, Masahiro Tanaka was more effective. He matched Snell through four and threw a perfect fifth armed with a two-run lead. Austin Meadows homered with one out in the sixth to make it a one-run game and Tanaka worked out of a two-on, two-out jam to keep it that way. A four-pitch seventh was the end of his day after 73 pitches.

“Obviously I was pumped up and it was important after that inning to shut them down,’’ said Tanaka, who gave up a run, and five hits in seven innings and evened his record at 3-3.

Zack Britton sweated through a nail-biting eighth and Aroldis Chapman was ready for the ninth until the Yankees scored four. In his first game back from the minors, Chad Green struck out the side in the ninth.

“Sit and watch,’’ Gardner said of how the players in the dugout killed time. “It’s nice to play well here and win a series, to know we are capable of doing that.”