BIG BLAST: Kevin Youkilis is greeted by David Ortiz after hitting a two-run home run off Joba Chamberlain in the seventh inning last night at the Stadium. (Anthony J. Causi)
With the Yankees’ margin of error as wide as dental floss, one small mistake kills.
Wednesday they didn’t hit in the clutch. Thursday they the fielded balls like Edward Scissorhands.
Last night, Joba Chamberlain soiled a respectable outing by Bartolo Colon with a pitch catcher Russell Martin said was a mistake by him.
Chamberlain’s shaky performance combined with the latest script delivered by the Dead Bat Society was enough for the Yankees to absorb a 5-4 loss to the Red Sox in front of a sold-out Yankee Stadium crowd of 48,254.
It was the Yankees’ seventh loss in 10 games and it dropped them two lengths out of first place in the AL East.
The Yankees went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. Martin, who clubbed a two-run homer off a filthy Clay Buchholz, was charged with a passed ball that led to a run.
Yet it was Chamberlain melting in the seventh that killed the Yankees, who dropped their third straight game.
With the score tied, 2-2, Chamberlain surfaced from the pen after Colon gave up a leadoff single to No. 9 hitter Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Chamberlain induced Jacoby Ellsbury to ground a ball to Derek Jeter. He flipped to Robinson Cano at second, but Cano didn’t attempt a throw to first on the speedy Ellsbury.
The thinking was that since Cano was shaded toward first to protect against the bunt that he had too far to go to turn a double play.
Dustin Pedroia executed a hit-and-run single to put runners at the corners for Adrian Gonzalez, who homered off Colon in the fourth. Chamberlain challenged Gonzalez with a fastball that resulted in a sacrifice fly to left that scored Ellsbury and moved Pedroia to second.
Ahead of Kevin Youkilis, 1-2, Chamberlain went along with Martin asking for a fastball on the outer half.
“I knew it wasn’t a good pitch as soon as it left my hand,” Chamberlain said of the 98-mph heater that Youkilis drove over the right-field wall for a two-run homer.
Martin said he should have asked for a different pitch.
“He threw the pitch I wanted, it was a bad call,” Martin said. “Maybe a fastball in or a slider away.”
Youkilis was happy it was the The Bronx instead of Boston.
“I got a fastball out over the plate and I was just very fortunate we were not playing at Fenway Park and we were at Yankee Stadium,” Youkilis said. “That’s the good thing about being here, the ball travels here. It’s probably an out at Fenway Park.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi is painfully aware of the Yankees’ struggles at the plate, which didn’t end last night. Yet he knew where last night got away from his club.
“That’s where we lost the ballgame, we gave up three runs in the seventh,” Girardi said.
Down 5-2, the Yankees went in order in the seventh, which was Buchholz’ final inning.
“I thought Buchholz’ movement on his fastball was as good as I have seen it,” Girardi said of the right-hander, who allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings.
The Yankees turned Curtis Granderson’s leadoff triple against Josh Bard into an eighth-inning run, but Nick Swisher whiffed and Jorge Posada grounded out with Alex Rodriguez on third and Cano on second.
In the ninth against Jonathan Papelbon, Jeter singled with two outs, went to second when the Red Sox let him and scored on Granderson’s opposite-field single to left. But Mark Teixeira’s problems against the Red Sox (hitless in 28 at-bats) continued when he popped out to end the game — and made you wonder what will kill the Yankees tonight.
— Additional reporting by Mark Hale and Kevin Kernan
george.king@nypost.com