ST. PETERSBURG -- While the Rays lost a series to the Yankees for the second straight weekend, it’s still important to remember that Tampa Bay is still 10 games over .500 with a 27-17 record, and it still has several battles to go against New York during the regular season.

After losing two of three to the Yankees, the Rays are no longer in first place in the American League East, but there are still 118 games left in the season, so there’s no reason to panic. Instead, let’s take a look at three positives and three concerns from the five-game road trip against Miami and New York, in which the Rays went 3-2.

THREE UP

1. Lowe like wow

Through the first seven weeks of the season, Brandon Lowe has established himself as a frontrunner for the AL Rookie of the Year Award. After struggling at the plate over the past couple of weeks, which included a stretch where he went 1-for-13 with 10 strikeouts, Lowe provided the Rays with a big boost offensively, launching his ninth and 10th home runs of the season against the Yankees over the weekend.

2. Adames’ May improvement

April was a struggle for Willy Adames, but the young shortstop has been much better at the plate in May. After hitting .200 in April, Adames has bounced back in May, hitting .311 (14-for-45). Adames also showed off the power this weekend, launching his second and third home runs of the season against the Yankees. Now Adames will look to find consistency at Tropicana Field, where he’s hitting just .156 in 64 at-bats this season.

If the Rays want to continue to make a push in the AL East, they’re going to need some big production from Lowe and Adames, so this was an encouraging sign for Tampa Bay this weekend.

3. Pitching staff continues to lead the way

Sunday’s 13-5 loss to the Yankees is probably not the best game to look at when talking about Rays pitchers. But overall, Tampa Bay's pitching was absolutely lights out during the road trip, allowing just five runs in the first four games. Even with Sunday’s ugly loss, the Tampa Bay pitching staff still leads the Majors with a 2.98 ERA.

“Our pitchers have been on a really good run,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I know we are playing a lot of tight ballgames right now. But they are picking us up in a lot of ways.”

THREE DOWN

1. Struggles against Yankees, Red Sox

With this weekend’s series loss against the Yankees, the Rays are now 10-3-2 in series play this season. That’s a good record for any team, but the only problem is that all three series losses this season have come against the Yankees (twice) and the Red Sox.

The beauty of division play is that the Rays still have plenty of opportunities to avenge those losses against the Yanks (13 more games) and Sox (14) this season, but if Tampa Bay wants to make a run at the division title, it knows it's going to have to edge out more wins against those two division rivals.

“The Yankees are a really good team, and they are going to be right there. That’s where we want to be,” said Rays starter Charlie Morton. “You want to have a series against these types of teams so you could see where you stand. Coming to Yankee Stadium and playing the Yankees, you want to play good ball.”

2. Morton’s free passes

Morton has continuously talked about how upset he has been with all the walks he has surrendered to start the season. With four walks against the Yankees on Sunday, Morton now has 25 walks this year, and he has allowed at least two walks in eight of his 10 starts this season. That’s something to keep an eye on moving forward.

3. Diaz’s hand

Losing 13-5 on Sunday was bad enough, but things got even worse when Yandy Díaz was removed from the game after being hit by a pitch on the left hand. Fortunately for the Rays, X-rays came back negative, and Diaz believes he might be ready to play after Monday’s off-day. But we’ve often seen hand injuries hurt production, so the injury definitely warrants some monitoring. Tampa Bay can’t afford another injury to its lineup, which is already missing Matt Duffy, Joey Wendle, Mike Zunino and Michael Perez.