NEW YORK -- With a two-run lead entering the seventh inning Wednesday night, the Rays were nine outs away from leaving the Bronx with a series sweep and about as much momentum as they’ve had in months.

Even after their bullpen faltered in the late innings, allowing the Yankees to force extras, the Rays had another golden opportunity to finish off a sweep and cut their division deficit to eight games. Francisco Mejía delivered one of the most clutch hits of the season, a bases-clearing double off Aroldis Chapman that gave Tampa Bay a three-run lead in the 10th.

But once again, a bullpen that had been remarkably reliable lately let the lead slip away. In a span of eight pitches, left-hander Jalen Beeks gave up a single to Gleyber Torres, walked Anthony Rizzo and surrendered a walk-off grand slam to Josh Donaldson. The Yankees’ quick, game-winning rally stunned the Rays and sent them back home not with a sweep, but with a frustrating 8-7 loss.

“It's obviously a game you want back,” reliever Pete Fairbanks said.

Most of the night, it looked like a game they’d want to remember for a long time.

The Rays built a four-run lead by the sixth inning thanks to two run-scoring doubles by Yandy Díaz and a solo shot by Harold Ramírez. Veteran starter Corey Kluber struck out eight while allowing only two runs in six innings, his third quality start against the Yankees this season.

From there, Tampa Bay only needed nine outs from a bullpen that entered the night with a 14 2/3-inning scoreless streak. But that came to a disappointing end Wednesday night.

“Those guys have all pitched really, really good for us here as of late, certainly the first two games here,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We just had our hiccup today.”

Lefty Colin Poche was the first man out of the bullpen and quickly found trouble, loading the bases on two singles from the bottom of the order and a walk by leadoff man Andrew Benintendi. That prompted Cash to turn to hard-throwing righty Fairbanks, who walked Aaron Judge on four pitches to make it a one-run game.

“What's frustrating to me is, by me not being able to do my job, it kind of stretched everybody else a little thin and put more responsibility on the guys who had already been worn down from the quality work they did in this series already,” Poche said.

The Rays were without top high-leverage reliever Jason Adam after he pitched in the previous three games. But they still had a lot of options and the matchups they wanted, including Fairbanks against Judge. Fairbanks began the at-bat with three consecutive sliders, all called balls, then fired a fastball below the strike zone that Judge took for ball four. Fairbanks got out of the inning with a double-play grounder, though, and a one-run lead.

“I wish I'd have got a couple pitches back, but at the end of the day, we got out with a lead,” Fairbanks said. “That's what we're out there to do.”

But the Yankees tied it in the eighth in unlikely fashion, as Anthony Rizzo lofted a slider from lefty reliever Brooks Raley into the right-field seats. It was the first home run allowed by Raley all season, snapping a 40-inning homerless streak that ran all the way back to Sept. 24, and only the second long ball he’s given up to a lefty in 108 1/3 innings since the start of the 2020 season.

Ryan Thompson got the Rays through the ninth, retiring Judge for the final out, then the offense temporarily silenced the Yankee Stadium crowd in the 10th. Tampa Bay loaded the bases with a pair of walks off Chapman, then Mejía rolled a bases-clearing double into right field, pointing a finger to the sky as he ran down the first-base line.

The Rays’ momentum was short-lived, however. They turned to Beeks, the lefty who threw two frames as an opener in Monday’s 4-0 win, but the inning quickly unraveled on him. Eight pitches later, Donaldson smacked the first walk-off grand slam given up by the Rays since Diego Castillo in Seattle on June 20, 2021.

“We played a really hard game, and then just to come down to me, and I can't get three outs, it's always frustrating,” Beeks said. “That's on me. I lost the game. … But hopefully, I can just be on the other side of that more often.”