ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Forget the comparisons to the 1998 Yankees. 

If the 2022 Yankees aren’t careful, they may be remembered in the same way the 2004 Yankees are: the authors of one of the biggest collapses in sports history. 

After another brutal loss to a bad Angels team in Anaheim, the Yankees find themselves just six games ahead of the Rays — and just five in the loss column — as the two teams prepare to meet six times in the next 10 days, starting Friday at Tropicana Field. 

What seemed like a foregone conclusion by the middle of June, a Yankees division title, is now in jeopardy. Their 15 ¹/₂-game lead on July 8 has been cut in half — and then some. 

The last time they had such a slim advantage, June 3, the Yankees were in the midst of a seven-game winning streak and a stretch in which they won 16 of 17 games. 

At this moment, they’re coming off their worst month since the miserable 1991 season, when they finished under .500 for a third straight year. 

One thing in the Yankees’ favor for the stretch run is that, according to Tankathaon.com, they have just the 15th-hardest remaining schedule, and just two teams have a more difficult road ahead than the Rays. 

But that’s small solace for a team that’s coming off what manager Aaron Boone called a “rough month.” And he wasn’t interested in discussing how September might be better. 

“We’ve got to play better than we’ve played lately,” Boone said. “It’s as simple as that.” 

The offense has been almost nonexistent, which means errors on back-to-back plays by Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and a mistake from Gerrit Cole to Shohei Ohtani that turned into a three-run homer sealed the Yankees’ fate on Wednesday. 

“We’re still in a good spot,” Cole said afterward in a dour visiting clubhouse at Angel Stadium. “We’ve got another month of opportunities to try to continue to get better.” 

It sounded similar to what Aaron Judge said just a few weeks ago after another dismal road trip, when they went 2-7 in stops at St. Louis, Seattle and Boston. 

“If you would have asked me at the start of the year, ‘Would I like a 10-game lead in the middle of August?’ I think any of us would have signed up for that,” the outfielder said on Aug. 14. “There’s little things we need to improve on, going back over this whole road trip. Different things on the base paths, executing with guys in scoring position [and] picking each other up.” 

Outside of a five-game winning streak — which has been followed by losses in four of their past five games — that hasn’t happened. 

To make matters worse in The Bronx, the Rays are coming off a sweep of Miami, have won nine of their past 11 and are 14-4 since Aug. 13. 

And since Aug. 12, Tampa Bay has moved from fourth to second place in the AL East. 

They’re without their best pitcher for at least the next two weeks, with Shane McClanahan on the IL due to a left shoulder impingement, but the Yankees are dealing with their own injury woes. Luis Severino (lat) and Nestor Cortes (groin) are on the IL, they have a battered bullpen, and Anthony Rizzo (back) and DJ LeMahieu (toe) are trying to play through injuries. 

“It is a long year,” Boone said of getting back to the style of play his team showed in the first half. “I have total confidence we will. We’ve got to get guys healthy, and the unfortunate part is the last several weeks, we’ve been losing close games.” 

There figures to be plenty more of them over the next month and into the postseason, so it’s in the Yankees’ best interest to start winning some of them.