The pounding Masahiro Tanaka absorbed was fading into the comfortable air above Yankee Stadium on Tuesday evening and providing hope that a lineup without Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu could steal a win.

Trailing by three runs in the seventh inning, the Yankees had the bases loaded with one out and Luke Voit, their hottest hitter who had homered in the fifth, at the plate.

As quickly as hope surfaced, a full-count slider from Diego Castillo that did nothing but catch the strike zone with the bat on Voit’s shoulder started to take the air out of the threat. And when Gio Urshela stranded three with a routine ground ball to third, the threat was dead. Yes, the Yankees had two more cracks at the Rays bullpen, but they missed their biggest chance.

“I knew I was going to get sliders and he threw me one that backed up and didn’t do anything,’’ Voit said of the biggest pitch of the night. “I failed and it is frustrating.’’

The Yankees didn’t score in the eighth or ninth and fell, 6-3, to a team that is 4-1 against them this year and moved to 1 ½ games back of the first-place Yankees in the AL East.

All three Yankees runs came on a solo homer by Gary Sanchez in the fourth and a two-run blast by Voit in the fifth. Each homer was off Blake Snell, who improved to 2-0.

After holding the Rays scoreless in the opening two innings, Tanaka (0-1) got hit hard in the third when the Rays scored four runs, the biggest blow delivered by Brandon Lowe whose three-run homer gave the visitors a 4-0 cushion.

“I feel like he was searching for it a little bit and it just wasn’t his night,’’ Aaron Boone said of Tanaka, who gave up six runs (five earned) and eight hits in four-plus innings. “Usually he can lean on something if he needs to and tonight he was searching for all three [pitches].’’

When Tanaka is off he knows the reason is a mechanical flaw that he more often than not can correct in between starts. Yet, there was no time Tuesday night to work out the uneasiness.

“I was trying to make adjustments throughout the game but I couldn’t find it,’’ Tanaka said. “I didn’t have my command and control.’’

It didn’t take Tanaka long to know he was in for a long evening regarding command and control.

“I knew right away something was off,’’ Tanaka said.

Tanaka getting slapped around, the seventh-inning failure and the Yankees going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position were the biggest reasons their six-game winning streak crashed, as well as their 10-0 start to the season in The Bronx.

However, there was a positive that surfaced out of the rubble and that was the five shutout innings provided by Nick Nelson and Luis Cessa.

Other than that, however, it wasn’t a good way to start a very big series that continues Wednesday night with the Yankees turning to ace right-hander Gerrit Cole.

“They got a good team, good pitching and defense and they can hit a little bit,’’ said Voit, who hit leadoff as a starter for the first time in his career. “It’s nice to have Gerrit on the mound [Wednesday]. We know he will dominate like he always does. It will be good to have our ace on the mound and hopefully get back on track.’’

It was expected that the time was coming when the Yankees would scuffle without Judge, Stanton and LeMahieu. However, coupling that with a rare poor outing by Tanaka was too much to overcome.