NEW YORK -- There was no mincing of words Monday night after the Yankees’ latest loss.

If the Yankees don’t start to hit, things aren’t going to get better.

• Box score

Gerrit Cole did his part with six strong innings against the Rays at Yankee Stadium in the series opener, but five Tampa Bay pitchers combined to blank the Bombers in a 4-0 win, handing the Yankees their second shutout loss in less than 24 hours.

“We just have to play better,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The underlying confidence is there. The pieces are there. Obviously we're missing a few key pieces, but everyone in there right now is capable of turning around. We’re getting shut down right now. That needs to change.”

• Rizzo plunked but gets denied first base

The Yankees hadn’t been shut out in back-to-back games since September 2016, when they were blanked in three straight. New York -- which has now been shut out in four of its last nine games -- managed just nine hits over the past 18 innings.

“We’ve got to score,” Boone said. “I can sit here and talk to you about it; we need to go do it. We need to go be prepared, walk out there with some swagger and with some confidence and get it done.”

The Yankees went a combined 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position in the past two games, and even that one hit failed to score a run. That came with one out in the fourth inning on Monday when Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled with runners at first and second, loading the bases. Presented with a chance to open the floodgates, Aaron Hicks hit a ball back to the mound, starting an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play that took the air out of the ballpark and turned the crowd against him.

It didn’t help that Hicks got turned around on David Peralta’s fly ball in the top of the inning, allowing it to fall behind him for a leadoff triple that led to the Rays’ first run. Statcast gave the ball a 95 percent catch probability.

“Overall, extremely embarrassing, actually,” Hicks said. “Even if I'm not hitting, I want my defense to be on point, and I messed up out there as well. … I'm out there trying to compete and help this team win. It’s not nice to hear boos, but when you're having a season the way that I am, that's kind of the way it goes, especially around here. They want results.”

“People are getting on you; that’s part of the business,” Boone said. “That’s part of wearing this uniform, certainly wearing the pinstripes. It's going to be gut-check time.”

That fourth-inning run was the only one Cole allowed through his six innings, but the Yankees struggled to get any offense going after a few early opportunities.

“We need a spark, but it just seems to be tough to come by right now,” Cole said. “It's just one of those funks.”

In the first inning, Josh Donaldson whiffed with two out and a runner at second. Hicks struck out with two on and two out in the second, then wasted the bases-loaded chance in the fourth. New York managed only one baserunner between the fifth and eighth, and a three-run Rays ninth seemed to erase any chance of a late rally for the struggling Yankees lineup.

“You go through something like this, I think a couple individuals that struggle a little bit with their confidence right now,” Boone said. “You’ve got to find a way when it's difficult.”

The lineup will receive a boost when D.J. LeMahieu returns from his day-to-day toe injury and Giancarlo Stanton (Achilles) comes off the injured list, but the Yankees can’t afford to wait for those reinforcements to arrive.

Having lost 10 of their last 12 games -- part of a larger slide that has seen New York go 8-16 since the All-Star break and 11-21 since July 9 -- the Yankees are 2 1/2 games behind the Astros for the top spot in the American League. Their lead in the AL East is still a healthy 10 games over the Rays and Blue Jays, but the Yankees should be feeling some urgency as the losses continue to pile up.

“You can't really choose as a team or as a player what bad things are going to happen to you; you can only choose how you respond to it,” Cole said. “We’re bringing it every day, the results haven't quite aligned with it. It’s physically tough and mentally tough; we're just going to have to persevere. There's no other option at this point but to persevere and get through it.”