The Yankees’ day opened with terrible news about Joba Chamberlain’s damaged right elbow.
And didn’t improve.
That’s because ace CC Sabathia spit out a late lead against the Red Sox in a game that was delayed by rain for almost three and one-half hours at Yankee Stadium.
On a night when Sabathia showed he had teammates backs by drilling David Ortiz after Josh Beckett hit Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, he absorbed a very bad loss because he let a seventh-inning lead slip into the muggy evening on the way to an 8-3 defeat in front of an announced crowd of 48,845. The crowd, which waited through a 3 1/2 -hour rain delay and a game that ended at 1:43 a.m., witnessed the Yankees being swept at home for the second time this season by the Red Sox.
“It’s very disappointing,” Sabathia said. “I take total blame.”
Derek Jeter, who went 1-for-4, singled in the seventh and is 10 hits shy of 3,000.
The Yankees’ sixth straight loss to the Red Sox lowered their ledger against the blood rivals to 1-8 this season and dropped them two lengths behind the AL East leaders.
“It’s important that we win,” manager Joe Girardi said after announcing Chamberlain had a torn elbow ligament and before the drubbing. “It’s been frustrating to lose five games in a row. There is a lot of pride in that room and you don’t want that pride to be put down.”
That pride might be still alive, but it has to be bruised after Freddy Garcia, A.J. Burnett and Sabathia got spanked.
Sabathia, who drilled Yankees-killer Ortiz in the mid-section in the fourth and drew a warning for it, took a 2-0 advantage into the seventh and showed no indication what was about to happen.
As for hitting Ortiz, Sabathia words didn’t match the radar gun.
“It was a two-seamer and it kind of got away,” Sabathia said of the pitch that was clocked at 97 mph, which is far too high for a pitch that is supposed to sink.
Through six frames Sabathia threw 82 pitches and faced just three batters with runners in scoring position.
Eleven batters later the Red Sox had a 7-2 lead and what was left of the crowd was howling.
Ortiz led off with a ground single to right and Jed Lowrie followed with a triple into the right-field corner that got past a diving Nick Swisher. After Carl Crawford grounded out, Mike Cameron laced a 3-2 pitch to left for an RBI double that tied the score, 2-2.
Jason Varitek, the No. 9 hitter, followed with a sharp single to right that put runners at the corners for Jacoby Ellsbury, who was 6-for-12 in the three games and singled in the first. His single to right plated Cameron and Adrian Gonzalez’ single up the middle scored Varitek.
Girardi called for David Robertson to face Kevin Youkilis and he scorched a 0-2 pitch to left for an RBI single that upped the Red Sox bulge to 5-2. Ortiz took delight in making it 7-2 with an opposite-field two-run double to left-center for his second hit of the rally.
Sabathia, who had won four in a row, fell to 7-3. Sabathia is 0-3 against the Red Sox in three starts this year. He matched a season-high by giving up six runs.
Beckett is 3-0 versus the Yankees and 5-2 overall. In seven frames he gave up two runs, four hits, walked two and hit three.
Curtis Granderson staked Sabathia to a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a two-run homer after Beckett drilled Jeter leading off the home first.
george.king@nypost.com