NEW YORK -- It was about four hours before game time on Thursday as the Yankees’ hitters marched, one by one, from the freshly-constructed “war room” poured into the far wall of the home clubhouse at Yankee Stadium. The group seemed to display some strut in their steps, residuals from three days spent beating up on the lowly Athletics pitching staff.

By the bottom of a silent first inning, those men recognized that they had returned to American League East competition. Having scored seven or more runs through their last four games, the Yanks were silenced until the ninth inning, stung by an 8-2 loss to the Rays that will send them back to the drawing board.

“For us, it’s just about, you’ve got to have conviction,” Aaron Judge said. “You’ve got to stick with your approach, stick with your plan for the whole at-bat. When you’ve got nine guys in the lineup doing that, it makes for a tough outing. When we’re constantly switching our approach, guy to guy, at-bat to at-bat -- it’s going to make it tough.”

The lopsided loss dipped the Yankees nine games behind division-leading Tampa Bay, coming after the rivals played a three-game set at Tropicana Field this past weekend that saw each contest decided by one run.

New York is 11-4 against teams below .500 this season (like Oakland), but only 10-14 against clubs with records of .500 or better (like the Rays).

“Of course, we want to win all the time, but I don’t know any teams that went 162-0,” catcher Jose Trevino said. “We’ve just got to roll with them.”

Though Domingo Germán pitched gamely into the sixth inning, the Yanks had no solution for Drew Rasmussen. Crediting his ability to control counts, the right-hander limited New York to a pair of Jake Bauers singles over seven efficient innings, striking out seven without allowing a walk.

“Any time you do that against that [Yankees] lineup, you have to be performing at a very high level, and Ras has been doing that against them,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Rasmussen has yet to permit a run against the Yankees in his career, having spun 21 scoreless innings (since July 28, 2021) against the Bombers. It’s the third-longest scoreless streak to start a career vs. the Yankees in the Expansion Era (since 1961), behind John Morris (22 1/3) and Troy Percival (21 1/3), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“He’s got quality pitches; he’s not just a one, two-pitch guy,” Judge said. “He’s a guy that can run a four-seamer, sinker in there. He’s got the big curveball, sweeper, and a little cutter that he mixes in there for a strike when he needs it. When we get our pitch in the zone, we can’t foul it off, can’t miss it, or hit it into the ground. We’ve got to do some damage on it.”

Germán matched Rasmussen into the fifth, when first baseman Anthony Rizzo booted a Josh Lowe grounder, then saw Lowe race home to score on Yandy Díaz’s double. Germán recorded the first two outs of the sixth inning, then walked Taylor Walls on five pitches.

Boone had seen enough, removing Germán after 87 pitches, just shy of his season high of 91, in favor of right-hander Ron Marinaccio.

“I thought Domingo was really good,” Boone said. “Domingo did a good job with his fastball, not being so predictable and getting them off the offspeed a little bit. But I was just going to Ron there at that point for the bottom [of the lineup].”

Marinaccio permitted a single and hit a batter before leaving a changeup over the plate to Lowe, who pounded it off the plexiglass of the right-field bullpen for a bases-clearing double.

“It’s been a pitch that’s been super successful for me,” Marinaccio said. “I’ve faced these guys a decent amount of times now so far these first few years. They could be picking up on some tendencies, so I’m making sure I’m mixing it up, moving it in and out.”

Lowe later added a two-run homer in the eighth off Ryan Weber. The Yanks narrowly avoided a shutout in the ninth, as Gleyber Torres delivered a two-out, two-run single.

“It’s tough, especially because this [Rays] team is sitting at the top,” Judge said. “You want to try to gain some ground on them, get a couple of wins here and keep it close. But we’ve got four games here at home, and we’re looking forward to getting that next one.”