For the first time in a week, the Yankees were reminded of what playing with a lead felt like on Saturday afternoon. 

But that lasted just two full innings before they sunk back to reality. 

Gerrit Cole was unable to protect the one-run lead and the Blue Jays came away with a 5-2 win in The Bronx, leading to the Yankees’ frustrations boiling over after the game. 

In addition to losing for the 15th time in their last 19 games, and falling to 12-25 over their last 27, the Yankees (73-48) clinched their sixth straight series loss. The loss further shrunk their lead atop the AL East — which manager Aaron Boone insisted on Friday night he didn’t “give a crap about” — to seven games over the Blue Jays (65-54), the smallest it has been since June 9. 

Told that the six straight series losses were a franchise first since at least 1995 (according to ESPN), Boone snapped. 

“No crap,” the manager said. “I mean, we’ve been asked all these questions. We’ve answered them till we’re blue in the face. We gotta go out and do it. I gotta quit answering these questions about this date and this perplexion [about the offensive struggles]. 

“We gotta play better, period. And the great thing is, it’s right in front of us,” Boone said while raising his voice and slamming the table at which he was sitting. “It’s right here and we can fix it. It’s right here. It’s there and we can run away with this thing. We got the dudes in there to do it.” 

The Yankees’ offensive malaise extended to 11 games, during which they have scored just 21 runs — eight of them on Wednesday in an 8-7, 10-inning win over the Rays. Through Aug. 8, the Yankees had been averaging an MLB-best 5.3 runs per game. 

Boone tried rearranging his lineup Saturday in an attempt to find a spark. He dropped Aaron Judge to the No. 3 hole for just the fourth time this season and bumped Andrew Benintendi up to the second spot. Judge collected a pair of infield singles — equalling the total hits he had recorded over his previous seven games — but Benintendi went 1-for-4 with a walk and left four men on base. 

“I think at times right now, even myself personally, we’re looking for someone else to come up with a big hit or do something,” said Judge, who added the Yankees needed to have better energy in the dugout. “Some of the stuff I’m seeing is just individual at-bats instead of team at-bats.” 

Gleyber Torres smacked a solo home run to the short porch in the eighth inning to pull the Yankees within 4-2. But Albert Abreu gave that run back in the top of the ninth when Matt Chapman took him deep. 

Working with a 1-0 lead after the second inning, Cole did not give up a hit until the fifth, when Santiago Espinal smacked a one-out double off the left-field wall. That quickly turned the tide for the Blue Jays. Danny Jansen followed with a walk and Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a two-run double for a 2-1 lead. Then, after two infield singles (one on which Cole failed to make a play), Alejandro Kirk hit another two-run double. 

The crowd of 45,538 unloaded a chorus of boos as Cole walked off the mound after the fifth. 

A smattering of boos even found Judge when he struck out looking to lead off the bottom of the fifth. 

“Anytime you don’t win, boos are warranted,” Judge said. 

“It’s about picking ourselves up and not forgetting we’re the New York Yankees,” he added. “We gotta go out there and show people that.” 

After a 52-18 start to the season, the Yankees are 21-30 over their last 51 games. Despite the downfall, Boone remained confident his group could snap out of it. 

“We got great freakin’ players in there, OK?” an irritated Boone said. “It’s a tough stretch, OK? We’re all pissed off and frustrated about it. We’ve done it for four months, OK? And you can say [the losing goes back further], but the offense has struggled for 12 days, OK? So that’s what it’s been, OK?”