Get your pooper scoopers ready if you want one last piece of Yankee Stadium history.
When the dog show returns here in 11 days for the final homestand in the current Stadium, the Yankees can talk about their glory days or start the “Wait ’til next year” rhetoric. This season almost certainly will be irrelevant.
The seven-game deficit in the wild-card race is one thing. The potential for real embarrassment is another, as the Yankees today begin a four-city, 10-game road trip. The Bombers will play a makeup game in Detroit before going to Tampa Bay, Seattle and Anaheim.
“We’re looking for a miracle here,” Andy Pettitte said after the Yankees closed August with a 6-2 loss to the Blue Jays yesterday.
After 13 straight postseason appearances, the Yankees will begin September closer to last place in the AL East than first and clearly the other team in New York. The Yanks (72-64) are 12½ games behind Tampa Bay for first and nine games ahead of Baltimore for last.
The wreckage on this latest homestand consisted of the Yanks losing two of three games against Boston before repeating the trick against Toronto. The Yankees went 13-15 in August – hardly the kind of push needed to close the gap on Boston in the wild-card race.
The Yanks are desperate for any kind of spark, but even if the mathematics work against them, they say rolling over is unacceptable.
“You have to take the field with some pride,” Johnny Damon said. “You’re able to wear a New York Yankee uniform. When I take the field, I’m trying the best that I can.”
Manager Joe Girardi wore his usual brave face in defeat, stopping just short of saying the Yankees have to win one for The Gipper.
“When things are down, that’s when people show their true colors,” Girardi said. “This is where character comes out.”
Character is nice, but a little hitting and pitching might be more helpful. Yesterday was the fifth time in six games the Yankees scored three runs or fewer, and the formerly reliable Pettitte continues to wilt in summer’s dog days.
The left-hander allowed six earned runs on 10 hits over 61/3 innings for his fourth loss in his past five decisions. Pettitte (13-11) has watched his ERA swell from 3.76 to 4.52 over the past five weeks. It has come during a time Joba Chamberlain is on the disabled list and the pitchers such as Darrell Rasner and Sidney Ponson have struggled in the rotation.
This game started to get away from the Yankees in the first inning.
Xavier Nady never saw Rod Barajas’ fly ball to left in the opening frame, turning it into a two-run double that gave Toronto a 3-0 lead.
Pettitte set the inning’s tone by walking leadoff hitter Marco Scutaro, who scored on Vernon Wells’ single.
Scott Rolen led off the second with a homer before Pettitte settled down. But the left-hander crashed in the seventh, allowing two more runs after the Yankees had pulled within 4-2 on homers by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi.
“I feel like this is when I’m supposed to be winning some ballgames, and I’m letting the team down big time,” Pettitte said. “It’s sick.”
mpuma@nypost.com