ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — This is what it sounds like when bats die.

It is Charlie Morton’s curveball cutting through the stale air inside Tropicana Field and getting Yankees to chase pitches out of the strike zone. It is the Yankees being unable to do much against four Rays relievers following Morton’s departure after six innings. It’s the sound of nine straight zeroes being hung on the scoreboard.

One night after being held to a run in 12 innings, the Yankees dropped a 4-0 decision to the Rays on Wednesday evening in front of 20,390.

“Kind of a weird couple of days for us offensively,’’ said DJ LeMahieu, the only Yankee to have a hit, which was a two-out single to right in the sixth.

Weird was the right word because in two games and 21 innings, the Yankees scored one run, totaled eight hits and went hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position.

“This is what they are capable of. This is a big reason why they are in this position and fighting for a playoff spot,’’ Aaron Boone said of the Rays, who are in a three-team fight for two AL wild-card spots with the Indians and Athletics. “If you are not really on top of your game up and down your lineup they can have nights like this. Charlie has been their ace and he is on top of his game. No question in these two games they very much kept us quiet.’’

Rats chewing on the spoiled cotton candy in the Tropicana Field garbage bins made more noise than the Yankees’ bats whose silence severely dented their chances of grabbing home-field advantage throughout the AL postseason.

A second straight defeat left the Yankees with a 102-57 record and dropped them 2 ½ games back of the Astros depending on what Houston did against the Mariners later Wednesday. The Yankees’ loss shrunk the Astros’ magic number to two and they have three games this weekend at Texas remaining.

If the Yankees and Astros finish with identical records Houston gets the home-field bonus after winning four of seven against the Yanks this year.

All of that points to the Yankees facing the AL Central winning Twins in the ALDS, in which they would host three games in the best-of-five affair.

Had Chad Green not thrown two innings in Tuesday night’s 2-1, 12-inning loss, he would have been Boone’s choice to open Wednesday’s game. Instead, Jonathan Loaisiga did and gave up two runs in the first inning, which were more than enough for Morton.

J.A. Happ, whose role in the postseason appears to be out of the bullpen, followed Loaisiga and gave up one run in five innings. Luis Cessa gave up a homer to Avisail Garcia in the eighth on the first and last pitch he threw that upped the lead to 4-0.

As for the Yankees at the plate, walks to Luke Voit and Tyler Wade in the third were erased when Morton got LeMahieu to bang into a 6-4-3 double play. LeMahieu ended Morton’s no-hit bid in the sixth with a two out single that was followed by a walk to Aaron Judge. But Brett Gardner stranded the runners with a weak ground ball to the right side.

With a record of 16-6 and an ERA of 3.05 Morton will receive Cy Young votes and he deserves them after handling the Yankees the way he did. He looked like the breaking-ball-throwing freak who blanked the Yankees in the first five frames of Game 7 in the 2017 ALCS to help the Astros reach the World Series.

As for the Yankees they have three games to shake the two-game hitting problems before they begin to prepare for the Twins who have lost 13 straight postseason games to the Yankees.