You might say I was stunned by what happened at the end of Sunday’s game.

The Yankees’ offense has been so woefully inept for two-plus weeks, and it was again for eight innings on a cold, wet day at Yankee Stadium. So yeah, I didn’t think they had a chance in hell of scoring and winning that game against arch rival Tampa Bay.

Even after Trent Grisham drew a hard-earned leadoff walk, Aaron Judge came up and the only thing I truly expected to happen was a double play. He was facing a reliever in Kevin Kelly who had allowed one earned run in his last 20 appearances across 22 innings, doing so at a time when he’s engulfed in a miserable slump during which he hadn’t hit a home run or even driven in a run in his previous 11 games.

So yeah, against the hottest and most annoying team in MLB, for Judge to walk it off with a drive to right-center felt almost miraculous. Man, the Yankees needed that one because it gave them a split of the weather-shortened two-game series and thus, they didn’t fall any further behind Tampa Bay in the AL East.

I’ll tell you what, though, the Yankees caught a big break thanks to the horrible weather that rolled through the Bronx on the holiday weekend because the Saturday rainout not only gave them a day off, it meant playing one less game against a team that had won 22 of its last 26. It’s not always about who you’re playing but when you’re playing them and right now is the absolute worst time to be playing the Rays.

The makeup date isn’t until late September when the Rays come back for their last visit to Yankee Stadium, and who knows where things will stand by then. We can hope the Yankees have soared back into first place and the Rays are sucking wind, though I kind of doubt that will be the case.

All I do know is playing one less against this team right now was fortunate, especially since the original schedule had them facing Drew Rasmussen Saturday and then Shane McClanahan on Sunday, and none of that looked promising.

Rasmussen has dominated the Yankees like few pitchers ever have, and sure enough, he did again when he was pushed back to Sunday and threw seven scoreless innings. Rasmussen has now started nine games in his career against the Yankees and in 50.2 innings his ERA is 0.88, his WHIP is 0.779 and he has 57 strikeouts and just 10 walks. Ridiculous.

As for McClanahan his scheduled Sunday start will now come Monday in Baltimore against the Orioles. McClanahan hasn’t owned the Yankees quite the way Rasmussen has, but he’s had pretty good success, and more importantly, he’s been great this season with a 2.82 ERA and 1.052 WHIP.

Judge rising up at just the right moment Sunday and remembering who he is to steal the win was nice, but as the Yankees head on the road this week, they’re still searching for their missing offense. In the last four games, the starting pitchers - Cam Schlittler, Carlos Rodon, Gerrit Cole and Ryan Weathers - allowed just three earned runs total, yet the Yankees won only this game thanks to Judge’s fourth career walk-off homer.

They have scored five measly runs in these last four and in the last 14 games when all the trouble began, they are averaging just 3.07 runs per game and are slashing .207/.302/.344 with an OPS of .646.

Granted, they’ve run into some really good pitching during this stretch, particularly against the Brewers, Blue Jays and Rays, but they’ve also had too many guys doing nothing. At the top of the list as the utterly useless Ryan McMahon and Austin Wells, but in the last 14 games Judge is hitting .176, formerly red-hot Ben Rice is hitting .186, and Cody Bellinger is at .204, and those three have combined for just 11 RBIs.

Think about that - the best three hitters on the team have a total of 11 RBI in the last 14 games. Is it any wonder why they’ve fallen 4.5 games behind the Rays, including a whopping six in the loss column?

On this road trip they’re playing the Royals (team ERA of 4.19 which ranks 19th) and A’s (team ERA of 4.27 which ranks 23rd). They have to get their shit together and roll these teams, especially because the Rays’ next nine games are against three of the worst teams in MLB - the Orioles, Angels and Tigers. There’s a very good chance the Yankees are going to lose even more ground on Tampa Bay if their bats remain silent.

“It’s been a crappy couple weeks for us, result-wise, but I feel like we’re in a good place team-wise,” said the eternal optimist, Aaron Boone. “I feel we have a good run in us here. We lost some tough games. I feel we played well in some of it and actually had some tough losses. We’re doing a lot of really good things. That’s why I feel so good about this group having the ability to take off. We’ve got to start moving that needle offensively a little bit. Hopefully that’s something that gets us started and we go have a successful road trip.”

➤ Gerrit Cole’s return went spectacularly well, but unfortunately, the rest of his teammates did almost nothing to help him and his six scoreless innings went to waste. And so, in what is becoming a clear and obvious trend with this 2026 team, the starting pitcher was terrific, but the offense failed repeatedly in the clutch and of course the bullpen blew it.

➤ Cole threw 72 pitches, he was dominating the Rays and I loved how he was pitching to contact. He wasn’t trying to strike everyone out, but it didn’t matter because Aaron Boone yanked him after six innings even though he looked perfectly fine. I could not believe it, nor could Cole if you saw his face in the dugout. He’d gone past 80 pitches in the last few of his minor league rehab games, so why the hell did Boone take him out? It made zero sense.

➤ It was a 1-0 game, and Boone turned that narrow lead over to this terrible bullpen and as soon as he did that, you knew the Yankees weren’t winning this game. Sure enough, Brent Headrick got into immediate trouble in the seventh before Fernando Cruz did a great to bail him out with two huge strikeouts to keep the lead.

➤ Then, even though Cruz threw only eight pitches, Boone didn’t send him back out for the eighth, another idiotic decision because apparently he doesn’t realize that if you keep dipping into this bullpen the worse it gets. This time it was Tim Hill puking all over himself in a disastrous eighth inning where the Yankees looked like a Little League team. Chandler Simpson hit a sharp grounder to Jose Caballero who was off the injured list and back at short, and he booted it. Just flat out booted it, and once Simpson is on base with his speed and the Rays’ ability to put the ball in play and make things happen, you know he’s probably going to find a way to score.

➤ Junior Caminero followed with a single and Simpson was at third before anyone even blinked. Jonathan Aranda doubled to tie it at 1-1, and after Yandy Diaz was intentionally walked to load the bases, Richie Palacios hit a chopper back to the mound and Hill had it go off his glove and into center field and two runs scored. Had he made the very makeable play, it was an easy force at home, maybe even a double play. Instead it was 3-1 and soon it was 4-1 as Camilo Doval gave up a sac fly to Ryan Vilade. It might as well have been 41-1 with the way the Yankees are hitting these days.

➤ Austin Wells actually did something as he hit a solo homer in the fifth, and then in the eighth there was one of those fake Yankees rallies where they give you hope, then crush you. Cody Bellinger doubled and with two outs Jazz Chisholm tripled him home, but Caballero ended it with a groundout. And then in the ninth, coming up as the tying run with two outs, Judge hit a long fly to center that stayed in the park to end the game.

➤ Hey, it was a win and it was a big one being that it was their first of the year against the Rays after four losses, but for 8 ½ innings I was convinced there was no way the Yankees were going to win. With the way this offense has been going, it felt utterly hopeless that they’d score a run, and you know damn well if it went to extra innings they were done because the Rays would have pushed across their free runner, at least, and the Yankees probably would not have.

➤ Thankfully we were spared that aggravation. As expected, Drew Rasmussen toyed with the Yankees throwing seven scoreless innings so when Rays manager Kevin Cash lifted him after 92 pitches, what a relief. It’s insane to me how some pitchers just flat out own the Yankees and Rasmussen might be at the top of the list, right there with Nathan Eovaldi.

➤ Of course, the Yankees were getting no bargain when Kevin Kelly and his 0.41 ERA over his last 20 outings came in for the eighth. After a predictably easy eighth helped by Wells’ pathetic double play grounder, Kelly got ahead of Trent Grisham 0-2 to start the ninth, but then threw four straight balls. That brought the slumping Judge to the plate and he sent Kelly’s first pitch over the wall in right for the walk-off. It was his first homer and RBI since May 10 in Milwaukee. Crazy.

➤ Ryan Weathers matched Rasmussen with seven outstanding scoreless innings of his own, allowing four hits and three walks. He had a huge moment in the third when, with one out and men on first and third he got Caminero to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. After that he retired 11 of the last 13 men he faced without allowing a hit, just two walks. Great job, but with this bullpen it sure felt like it was going to be for naught. Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t.

➤ Cruz pitched the eighth and as always he made it way too difficult, but the Yankees defense saved the day. First, after Diaz doubled and was replaced by pinch runner Oliver Dunn, Judge made a diving catch in right-center for the second out, a play that surely saved a run. After Cruz intentionally walked Caminero, Vilade grounded a single to left. Bellinger fielded the ball and made a great split-second decision by throwing to third because Caminero was stupidly trying to go there. The throw to Ryan McMahon was on the money and he made a really nice pick and tagged Caminero, and because Dunn had to avoid being hit by the batted ball, and then sort of stumbled rounding third, he did not touch home before the third out so his run did not count. That was a huge, huge turning point.

The Yankees (31-22) now head back on the road for the next week, first stop Kansas City for three against the Royals who have massively underachieved so far at 22-31, fourth in the AL Central. The Yankees swept them at Yankee Stadium back in mid-April by a cumulative score of 24-6. With the way the offense stands right now, I’m pretty sure we’re not going to see a repeat of that.

Still, the Royals have been terrible lately. Before beating Seattle Saturday and Sunday, they had lost 10 of 11 games. They rank 22nd in on-base at .313 and 21st in OPS at .691 so the Yankees need to continue their recent rag-dolling of the Royals who they have beaten 27 out of 33 counting the postseason since the start of 2022.

➤ SS Bobby Witt: He’s the best overall shortstop in MLB, he leads the AL with 61 hits and he’s slashing .295/.362/.471 for an OPS of .833.

➤ C-DH Salvador Perez: He had a nice day Sunday but for the season his on-base is just .258. Incredibly, he leads the Royals in RBI with just 24.

➤ 1B Vinnie Pasquantino: The big slugger remains stuck in the mud as he’s hitting .199 with just five homers and an OPS of .613.

➤ 3B Maikel Garcia: Second on the team with 54 hits and he leads with 27 runs scored.

➤ RP :Lucas Erceg: Normally a stud, but he gave up three runs in the ninth Sunday and his ERA jumped to 4.43 and his WHIP went up to 1.570. He has 11 saves but has blown three.