ST. PETERSBURG -- Rangers manager Bruce Bochy was in unfamiliar territory Sunday afternoon. For only the fifth time in 21 opportunities this season, his team had lost a series. But following a 7-3 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field, Bochy said the confidence had grown in his ballclub -- a club that has the second-best record (41-23) in the Majors behind Tampa Bay (48-20).

“We’re disappointed we lost the series,’’ said Bochy, whose team had won six consecutive road series and six consecutive series overall. “But we played well.’’

The numbers didn’t sparkle for Rangers starter Martín Pérez, who was beaten for the first time since the Cubs defeated him April 8 at Wrigley Field. He lasted just 3 1/3 innings, after running into trouble in the fourth, when a three-run homer from Rays shortstop Wander Franco was followed by a Harold Ramírez single that ended his outing. Pérez allowed seven runs on 10 hits and three walks.

But Pérez gave up an inordinate amount of soft contact. Hits bounced up the middle, between defenders or snuck through unoccupied portions of the infield. Franco made Pérez pay dearly for an errant changeup, but otherwise, the pitcher was mostly undone by whispers, not thunderclaps.

The Rangers’ offense patched together a three-run third inning, lifted by a solo homer from Robbie Grossman, an RBI double from Marcus Semien and Corey Seager’s RBI single, pulling them within one run at 4-3.

But there was no wiggle room after that. Rays left-hander Shane McClanahan (10-1), MLB’s first 10-game winner, retired 15 straight batters to finish his dominating 96-pitch outing.

Texas trailed 7-3 after Franco’s one-out blast in the fourth inning, and that’s where the margin stayed. That helps to explain Bochy’s mostly sunny outlook. The bullpen allowed just two hits in 4 2/3 scoreless innings -- and that made for 10 consecutive scoreless innings from Rangers relievers during the series.

“It’s trending upward,’’ Bochy said.

In the ninth, Texas actually brought the tying run to home plate. After a pair of walks off Rays reliever Jason Adam sandwiched a double by Josh Jung, the Rangers had the bases loaded with one out. But Adam coaxed Ezequiel Duran into a game-ending double-play ball.

“You play all 27 outs and you’re hoping you can get one into the gap, but we came up short,’’ Bochy said. “We let a one-run ballgame get away from us, but the bullpen held them in check and we kept battling.

“McClanahan is just really tough. Obviously, [he's] one of the best pitchers in the game. We got to within 4-3, but [McClanahan] settled down and regrouped. He really battled. I thought [Pérez] battled, too. [The Rays] didn’t hit it that hard, but things fell in and the grounders rolled through.’’

With one out in the fourth, Pérez walked Taylor Walls, the Rays’ No. 9 batter, then gave up a punch single to leadoff batter Yandy Díaz. On a 2-1 offering, Pérez tried a changeup to Franco, but it stayed up.

“A big miss by me,’’ Pérez said. “I think I was a little bit off on my delivery today. I need to check the video, but I still believe in myself. And I still believe in this team. We’ve done it all year and we’re going to continue to do it.

“We still kept fighting back. We put runners on [in the ninth inning]. That’s who we are and who we’ll continue to be. We’ll move on from this and be just fine.’’

And that mirrored Bochy’s central message.

“I thought there were a couple of times in this series where we needed to better execute our pitches,’’ Bochy said. “Two good teams that can put up some runs. Two teams with good pitching. A couple of moments here and there [and things are different]. We’ll keep at it and be back tomorrow."

The Rangers will be back it at home Monday night when they start a four-game series with the Los Angeles Angels.