ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There is losing a rubber game, and then there is what the Yankees experienced across three-plus hours on Sunday afternoon.

Long after taking a 6-0 lead and blowing it with Gerrit Cole on the mound, the Yankees came back to force extra innings before suffering a crushing loss.

The Rays walked it off for an 8-7 win in 10 innings in front of 32,142 in a playoff-like atmosphere at Tropicana Field.

Despite the teams being separated by nine games entering the series — with the Rays (28-7) atop the AL East and the Yankees (18-17) in last place, just as they finished the weekend — they played three one-run games.

And yet dropping two of three, especially with how gut-wrenching Sunday’s finale was, felt like a brutal swing for the beaten-up Yankees.

“I feel like we could have walked away with three of these games and they probably feel the same way,” Anthony Rizzo said.

After the Yankees’ bullpen had already used Jimmy Cordero, Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta and Michael King to get through the ninth inning — with Ian Hamilton and Ron Marinaccio unavailable — Albert Abreu came on for the bottom of the 10th and allowed a one-out single to Isaac Paredes to end it.

The Yankees had missed a chance to take the lead in the top of the 10th with Aaron Hicks on third and one out.

With the infield in, Gleyber Torres grounded to shortstop and Hicks took off on a contact play — the correct move, Aaron Boone said — but had no shot of scoring.

He ended up getting tagged out in a rundown that lasted long enough to get Torres to third, but Rizzo struck out to end the threat.

“These guys are competing their asses off, they really are,” Boone said. “It’s difficult when you play pretty well and lose two out of three to a division rival. But we’re getting there.”

The Yankees, who went 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position Sunday, will get another chance to cool off the Rays in a four-game series starting Thursday at Yankee Stadium, likely with Aaron Judge in tow.

It was hard to see a 10th inning being necessary when the Yankees took a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth with Cole on the mound.

The Yankees ace had allowed just seven runs all season across 46 ²/₃ innings coming into Sunday and mostly cruised into the fifth.

But the Rays got to Cole for two runs in that fifth — including a solo shot by Jose Siri, the first home run Cole allowed this season after going his first 51 innings without surrendering one.

Then in the sixth, they piled on four more runs off Cole and squeezed another out of Cordero to take the 7-6 lead in the blink of an eye.

“It feels awful,” said Cole, who was done in late in his outing by a lack of command on his breaking balls.

Cole started the sixth by giving up back-to-back doubles and then issuing a walk.

Cordero was ready in the bullpen, but Boone stuck with Cole, who promptly gave up a game-tying, three-run home run to Christian Bethancourt.

“In hindsight, probably should have got him [before Bethancourt],” Boone said. “But it’s also our ace and he’s been so good managing situations this year. … And being short Marinaccio and Hamilton [in the bullpen] today, I just felt like the best way to get there was having Gerrit work through that.”

Instead, the move backfired and overshadowed some encouraging signs for the Yankees on a day when the offense showed more life.

Harrison Bader came up a double shy of the cycle, Rizzo homered, Aaron Hicks recorded his first extra-base hit of the season and Oswaldo Cabrera and Gleyber Torres had multi-hit efforts.

But it all factored into the conundrum the Yankees faced as they headed back home: as much as they battled against the team with the best record in baseball and played to three one-run games, all they had to show for it was a single win.

“I thought we played them tough,” Cole said. “It’s always a battle against these guys. I thought the level of compete was there from every pitch. … I thought we progressed as a group throughout the series and I just let them down today by coughing up the lead.”