ST. PETERSBURG -- As the Yankees zipped their travel bags and eyed a well-deserved day off, having just completed a grueling stretch of 23 games in 22 days, Aaron Judge departed Tropicana Field wishing that he and his teammates could visit the bat rack and take a few more swings.

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“I think everybody in here wants to play again,” Judge said after the Yankees’ 4-2 loss to the Rays on Sunday afternoon. “I think we’ve got a bad taste in our mouth. It doesn’t matter how many games you’ve got in a row. Everybody in here is ready to go, every single day.”

Judge may not like it, but the schedule will permit the Yankees a Memorial Day break to take stock of their position, owning an American League-best 33-15 record. The 23-game span opened with a May 8 doubleheader against the Rangers, during which they posted the first of 15 victories against eight defeats.

“We certainly feel good about where we’re at and what we’re doing,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It would’ve been nice to finish off a great series down here, but overall I feel like we’re in a pretty good spot. Hopefully, we’ll start getting some guys on the mend, too; onward and upward.”

Though the Yankees came out of the gate playing .700-plus ball, a pace comparable to the 1998 World Series championship squad, it has not been all peaches and sunshine -- especially of late. Boone’s clubhouse warning that “adversity is coming for you” proved accurate.

In this recent stretch, there have been injuries (Aroldis Chapman, Chad Green, Jonathan Loáisiga, Tim Locastro, Giancarlo Stanton), a trio of close calls concerning potential COVID-19 exposure and the distraction of Josh Donaldson’s spat with Tim Anderson and the White Sox.

Yet one constant has been the Bombers’ excellent starting pitching, with Luis Severino delivering another strong performance on Sunday.

After a brief delay in which the umpires made Severino switch out his gray fielder’s glove in favor of a tan model, the right-hander limited Tampa Bay to a pair of solo home runs before being pulled with one out in the seventh. Ji-Man Choi cleared the fences in the second inning and Taylor Walls went deep in the fifth.

“I feel pretty great,” Severino said. “Even I didn’t know how I was going to be [this season]. I feel awesome doing my work between starts. We’ve got a great team; the pitching has been great.”

Walls created some bulletin-board fodder earlier in the series when he proclaimed the Yankees to be “very beatable,” a comment that New York mostly ignored. Walls’ homer off Severino was a go-ahead shot as Shane McClanahan limited the Yanks to Gleyber Torres’ ninth homer of the season in the second inning.

With the bullpen pecking order appearing much different than 22 games ago, rookie Ron Marinaccio was Boone’s call to relieve Severino in the seventh. Marinaccio struggled, walking the first two batters to force in a run and hitting Mike Zunino with a pitch, making it a 4-1 game at the time.

“I liked Marinaccio in that spot; he just didn’t throw strikes today,” Boone said.

Judge’s performance has been a reliable constant in an offense that has seen production dip, particularly toward the bottom half -- run-scoring opportunities went by the boards in the sixth (Aaron Hicks’ lineout, Isiah-Kiner Falefa’s double play) and eighth (Hicks’ groundout on a terrific play by Walls).

Yet Judge delivered, hearing chants of “M-V-P!” from the pro-Yankees contingent of a sellout crowd of 25,025, rounding the bases on his Statcast-projected 420-foot homer off Colin Poche in the eighth.

“I just go back and look at a lot of the games that we’ve come back and won,” Judge said. “The score doesn’t really matter with this team. We’re a ballclub with a lot of fight, and we’re never out of it. I think that’s what makes this team special.”

Since the marathon stretch began on May 8, Judge has strapped the club across his shoulders, batting .325/.396/.687 (21-for-83) with three doubles, nine homers and 18 RBIs. No wonder he’d like to get back in the box for a few more hacks, even if a break might be most welcome for others.

“We’re in first place; that’s the only thing I’m really going to look at,” Judge said. “It’s better than being in second place, that’s for sure.”