A weekend that had all the trappings of an early-season hinge point ended with the Yankees just as far back from the Rays as when it started. 

For all the positivity that came with two come-from-behind wins over Tampa Bay, Sunday’s 8-7 loss to the Rays underscores the reality that it will not be so clean or so easy to turn the season around. 

“I think we’re in a good spot,” Aaron Judge said, mirroring the current of relative optimism in the Yankees’ message after the loss. “These were some battles back and forth. We don’t want to come here and split the series, but they’re one of the best teams in baseball and we battled.” 

After their bullpen squandered leads on consecutive days, the Rays would not let the Yankees come back on them on a third straight occasion.

This lead, 8-4 after five innings, they could protect — albeit not without some struggles. 

Minus a four-run blemish in the third, Tampa starter Zach Eflin put in a strong six innings, striking out nine and rarely giving the Yankees much to work with.

At no point against Eflin did a Yankee batter come to the plate with two men on. 

Once Aaron Judge did, in the seventh, he singled in a run off Kevin Kelly.

But Anthony Rizzo couldn’t keep the rally going, striking out after coming to the plate as the tying run. 

An inning later, the Yankees got within 8-7 on Anthony Volpe’s two-run homer, setting the stage for what could have been the grand finale to a weekend of comebacks. 

Instead, Jason Adam shut the door, setting down Oswaldo Cabrera, Gleyber Torres and Judge — the final out on a deep fly ball to left-center that Adam clearly thought was gone off the bat as he hung his head and patted his heart once it was caught on the warning track — to quell the hopes of a dramatic victory. 

“Hit it good,” Judge said, “but off the bat just hit it too high. And especially how deep it is out there, kinda praying for a miracle once it gets up there.” 

After going six innings for the first time all season five days earlier against Oakland, Clarke Schmidt began to struggle on Sunday once the Rays came through the order for the third time. 

Schmidt put three straight hitters on with a walk and two singles in the fifth, then was spared disaster on a diving play from Harrison Bader that resulted in a sacrifice fly.

That did turn out to be a fleeting avoidance, as Schmidt was pulled after walking the next hitter, Brandon Lowe, and Taylor Walls turned on a 1-2 changeup — the fourth straight changeup — from Albert Abreu for a grand slam. 

“We execute that pitch, we get the result we want, but unfortunately, it ended up in his power zone,” Abreu said through an interpreter. “Paid a high price today because of that.” 

Finishing with seven earned runs on six hits, Schmidt was far from dominant prior to the decisive fifth inning, but the first two times through, the Rays had to grind and manufacture runs. 

Yandy Diaz came around to score on the first after doubling and advancing twice on groundouts.

Isaac Paredes — who spelled Diaz after he left the game with left groin tightness — singled in Jose Siri two innings later, then scored on Lowe’s sacrifice fly. 

The Yankees, at that point, looked poised to rely on the same script that got them through Friday and Saturday.

Two-run home runs from Cabrera and Rizzo in the bottom of the third gave them a 4-3 lead and the same energy that permeated through the Stadium an afternoon prior was back. 

Like before, it seemed to build and build as the Yankees chipped at the lead, reaching a crescendo in the ninth as Judge’s fly ball carried into left.

But this time, it died out in the glove of Siri. 

That left the weekend, which started with the two best wins of the season, with a particular feeling of dissatisfaction, the possibility of a neat and clean turnaround answered for the moment by dint of being unanswered. 

There’s still plenty of time and plenty of potential with this Yankees team which, despite its divisional struggles, started Sunday in a wild-card spot.

But that does not make its self-actualization a simple matter. 

“They’re in a really good place as far as their play, their focus,” manager Aaron Boone said of his team. “I feel like they’re making good adjustments. So disappointing not to finish it off today, but I do feel very pleased with where this group is at.”