TORONTO — Across a six-month season, even the best teams need to lather their nose hairs with Vaseline to filter the stink coming off their uniforms.
Yesterday, the Yankees needed a tub of it to combat the stench supplied by putrid defense, which made a season-high four errors, and sub-par pitching by Sergio Mitre, Mark Melancon and Josh Towers.
In front of a sun-splashed Rogers Centre crowd of 30,873, the Yankees turned into the Mets — particularly in the Blue Jays’ eight-run fifth inning — and dropped a revolting 14-8 decision.
Though the Yankees hit well enough, Mitre, who likely won’t be on the postseason roster, was victimized by his fielders, didn’t pick them up after the errors and even walked a run in.
“They are part of the game,” Mitre said of the errors. “They usually don’t happen often here. I need to do a better job of picking them up and I didn’t do that.”
The four errors, twice as many as the former season-high (which the Yankees have done a dozen times), didn’t include a mental mistake by third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr., which helped fuel the eight-run fifth, when the hosts obliterated a 5-4 Yankees lead. Hairston looked home after fielding Joe Inglett’s grounder, but opted to throw to first, and Inglett beat the throw. Nor did it include Nick Swisher losing Vernon Wells’ third-inning fly to right in the sun, which also led to a run.
Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Ramiro Pena and Hairston each made errors.
“It’s not Yankee baseball, it’s not what we have done all year,” manager Joe Girardi said. “You are going to have ugly games but you don’t like it when they come. It’s a game that happened. It’s something to put behind and move forward.”
The loss ended a two-city trip with a 5-2 record and sent the Yankees home, where they hope to celebrate Derek Jeter (3-for-3 yesterday) passing Lou Gehrig on the club’s all-time hit list. Jeter needs three hits to tie the iconic first baseman.
Because the Red Sox won, 6-1 over the White Sox, the Yankees’ lead in the AL East was sliced to 7½ games. They still have the best record in baseball (87-50).
Pitching for the first time in a week due to a bruised right forearm suffered while hurling a gem against the White Sox, Mitre (3-2) gave up 11 runs (nine earned), 11 hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings. Mitre wasn’t as bad as the numbers indicated, according to Girardi.
“Serge got 21 outs, [but] our defense let us down,” Girardi said. “I thought Serge actually threw well. Today we didn’t play good defense.”
There were two scary moments in the lopsided affair. Towers, a former Blue Jay who was elevated from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Saturday, hit Randy Ruiz in the face with a 0-2 pitch in the fifth. Ruiz stayed down for a while and spit blood, but walked off the field.
With the game out of hand in the sixth, Johnny Damon and Melky Cabrera collided in left-center going after the final out of the inning. Cabrera went to the turf and stayed there momentarily before jogging off the field.
Cabrera remained in the game and slugged a three-run homer in the seventh for his 500th major league hit.
Hairston’s throwing error in the first helped fuel a three-run Blue Jays rally. In the second, Mitre worked around Cano’s fielding error to leave two runners on and not allow a run. Teixeira misplayed a ball hit by Edwin Encarnacion in the third, allowing Vernon Wells to score. Pena, who replaced Jeter, threw wildly to first base in the sixth for the fourth error.
By that time, the Yankees were passing the Vaseline around like a cheap bottle of wine.