The Yankees’ defense sparkled Tuesday night. The new kids, Everson Pereira and Oswald Peraza, came up and tried to provide a spark.

But sparks go out. An ice-cold offense again cooled off any semblance of good feelings and the Yankees’ skid reached another historic low, one not seen in 41 years, with their ninth straight loss, this one 2-1 to the Nationals in front of 38,105 mostly indifferent fans in The Bronx.

The losing streak is the Yankees’ longest since 1982, when Dave Winfield led the club in home runs and a pair of firings meant Bob Lemon, Gene “Stick” Michael and Clyde King all had stints managing the team.

Michael was fired following a doubleheader sweep so embarrassing that George Steinbrenner’s team reportedly offered fans on hand free tickets to future games.

There were no such plans Tuesday.

The Yankees have scored 13 runs combined in their past seven games.

They finished the latest embarrassment with two hits, both from catcher Ben Rortvedt, whose third-inning home run provided their only run.

“It’s definitely unsettling,” said Carlos Rodon, who was statistically strong because of an excellent defense behind him. “It’s not somewhere we want to be.”

But it is where the Yankees find themselves because their offense remains incapable of either generating base runners or capitalizing on base runners, depending on the day.

Despite the two hits, they still put together the beginnings of threats with six walks.

But they only had three at-bats with a runner on second base (going 0-for-3) and zero with a runner on third.

The offense did virtually nothing against Nationals starter Josiah Gray, a New Rochelle native, who one-hit the Yankees for six innings before a trio of relievers finished the job.

“I thought we had some chances and some pitches to do some things with tonight and just couldn’t take advantage,” said Boone, who sounds more defeated by the day.

The Nationals scored on a pair of homers, the second an eighth-inning blast from CJ Abrams, who turned on a Tommy Kahnle changeup and bounced it off the right-field pole for the game-winner.

After Abrams’ homer, the Yankees went quietly to another loss in a season in which they usually have gone quietly.

The Yankees (60-65) fell to 10 ¹/₂ games behind the Mariners for the final AL wild-card spot.

Boone described his club’s morale as “pretty down.”

“When you get beat over and over again and you’re in the middle of a tough season, it makes it hard,” said Boone, whose club is one loss away from matching the 1913 team as the last Yankees outfit to lose 10 in a row. “But you got to fight that feeling and get your ass back here tomorrow ready to compete.”

Asked if he felt his club was still fighting, he said it was, even if it doesn’t look like it.

Game One of the future — after the Yankees called up, then started Everson Pereira and Oswald Peraza — looked a lot like many of the first 124 games of the season.

Pereira went 0-for-3 with a walk and a defensive highlight in his major league debut.

Peraza went 0-for-4 in his first MLB game since July 26.

Wasted was perhaps the best defensive game of the season, which helped Rodon pitch effectively — if not overpoweringly — for a season-best six innings, in which he allowed a run.

In the fourth and fifth innings, Aaron Judge, Pereira (with the help of a relay throw from Anthony Volpe) and Harrison Bader recorded assists on strong throws from the outfield, the first Yankees team with a trio of outfield assists in a game since 2007.

Those plays finally gave Yankees fans something to cheer about.

But such, suddenly, are the standards for this team: At least they entertained on one side of the ball in another dreary defeat.

The Yankees are battling not just opponents but the numbing feeling that arises from each contest feeling like the last.

The day changes, occasionally the personnel is different, but the punch and the result remains the same.

“Every loss really stinks,” Rortvedt said. “Doesn’t get easier at all. We just have to come in every day prepared to turn this around.”