They played like a team that had nowhere to go but was in a big hurry to get there.
On the final day before the All-Star circus smothers The Bronx tomorrow and Tuesday, the Yankees needed a victory today to carry them into the four-day break with positive vibes dancing in their heads.
Instead, they sleepwalked through a 4-1 loss to A.J. Burnett and the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in front of 43,854.
“We stink right now, we need to play better,” a blunt Andy Pettitte said after absorbing the Yankees’ second loss in three games against the going-nowhere Blue Jays.
You can credit Roy Halladay (two-hit shutout Friday) and Burnett (one run; six hits, 8 innings) for dominating performances, but the Yankees looked like their bus to the airport was doubled parked outside Gate 9.
“Our offense is better than we have displayed,” manager Joe Girardi said. “We have 67 games to get it right.”
Can they?
The Yankees are banking on Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui returning from the disabled list to add life to the Dead Bats Society. Signing Richie Sexson when he clears waivers to add right-handed muscle this week also is a possibility.
Still, the Yanks need bats beyond those three.
The loss sent the 50-45 Yankees into the break six games behind the first-place Red Sox in the AL East. Today, Boston went past the slumping Rays, who have lost seven straight.
Burnett, pitching on three days’ rest and possibly being showcased for other teams, wasn’t as overpowering as Halladay, but he blanked the Yankees until Jason Giambi’s one-out homer in the ninth.
Burnett, who was 1-1 with a 9.49 ERA in his last two starts (19 hits; 13 earned runs in 12), left when Jorge Posada followed Giambi’s homer with a ground single to right.
B.J. Ryan ended the game by inducing Robinson Cano to bang into a 6-4-3 double play, saving the game for Burnett (10-8).
“He throws 97 (mph) and the ball moves all over the place,” Derek Jeter said of Burnett, who showed the scouts in attendance that he would be a solid addition before the July 31 trade deadline.
Pettitte won five of his last six decisions and didn’t pitch poorly. But four runs in six innings was more than enough for him to drop to 10-7.
The Blue Jays scored all their runs in the second when Scott Rolen singled in a run and Marco Scutaro hit his third homer of the season with two on after failing to get a sacrifice bunt down.
“It was a cutter down and it seemed like he was looking for a cutter down there,” Pettitte said of the fateful 1-2 pitch that landed over the left-field fence. “That was a poor job on me and Jorge’s part.”
Trailing, 4-0, the Yankees stirred in the fourth and sixth against Burnett, but didn’t score.
Bobby Abreu opened the fourth with a double, but Alex Rodriguez flied out, Giambi whiffed and Cano grounded out after Posada was hit by a pitch.
Abreu and Rodriguez singled with one out in the sixth, but Giambi, who is in a 3-for-27 slump, flied out and Posada whiffed.
“It’s disappointing, their guy dominated us all day and ran me out there quickly,” Pettitte said. “It was not a good game for us.”
Or, in Pettitte’s words: “We stunk.”