We need to deal with some facts right up front.
Most teams do not have Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher, CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda, Rafael Soriano and David Robertson.
So the Yankees still have more quality players than most clubs, even with Mariano Rivera out for the season, and Andy Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira trying to heal in time to have more meaningful moments in 2012. They certainly should have enough to win a series in The Bronx against a demoralized, last-place Toronto team that has hemorrhaged far more talent to the disabled list — Jose Bautista, Brett Lawrie, Sergio Santos, pretty much an entire starting rotation — while not having the Yankees’ star depth.
The Blue Jays arrived to the Stadium having lost seven straight and 10 out of 11. That the Yankees fell in a series to these Blue Jays at this critical juncture — with their division edge dwindling and 10 games upcoming against the Orioles and Rays — hardly is the stuff of confidence building. That they lost yesterday’s rubber game matinee with a Manhattan night behind the young Blue Jays and Sabathia in front of Toronto made the Yankees look even more like a team clinging to the AL East lead rather than defiantly protecting it.
“We didn’t play well,” Joe Girardi said after the 8-5 loss.
That was both understatement and missing the point at the same time. For the Yankees actually got the breaks in this game. Toronto left fielder Rajai Davis turned what should have been a third-inning lineout by Granderson into a two-run double. Russell Martin’s weak grounder in the eighth struck the third-base bag and was redirected for an RBI double. That was three gift runs and still the Yankees lost by three. To this version of the Blue Jays.
They lost in a hail of ineptitude. Both starting third baseman Jayson Nix and his mid-game replacement Eric Chavez made costly errors. Andruw Jones, once the most graceful of center fielders, did a Dave Kingman imitation in right. From the fourth to eighth inning, the Yankees’ lineup went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position with six strikeouts.
In other words, the Yankees could have saved Sabathia. But, in the end, this is about Sabathia carrying his team, not vice versa. For with each missing star, the responsibility only magnifies for those remaining upright in this pinstriped galaxy. And in his second start off the DL, Sabathia was neither sharp (his changeup was absent, his slider spotty) nor clutch enough to navigate around the malfeasance.
For example, Nix made an error to help load the bases in the third. But he also made a nifty short-hop scoop to begin a step-on-third-throw-home double play that left two outs, two on and the Yankees’ 2-0 advantage intact. Sabathia then gave up three straight RBI hits and the lead. In the sixth, staked to a 4-3 lead, Sabathia gave up a single on a 0-2 pitch to lefty-swinging Adam Lind. Yunel Escobar followed with a homer to put Toronto up for good.
“This game is all my fault,” Sabathia said.
As always, the lefty was good on accountability. But more and more during his Yankee term, he is failing to honor a No. 1 starter pedigree. At this point, it is hard to see why Kuroda should not get the ball in Game 1 of a playoff series. Of course, that is assuming a Yankees postseason.
Most of the Yankees’ 10-game lead has evaporated, and we should remember the Red Sox had their historic collapse last season for many reasons, none bigger than the plummet of their two best starters, Jon Lester and Josh Beckett.
So we can talk about side stories like lineups that have Steve Pearce at cleanup or Nix at third base. But the Yankees should have enough stars left to weather a long season, the Orioles and Rays, and certainly enough to dispatch a reeling wreck known as the Blue Jays. But stars have to perform in that manner. And yesterday CC was not only Sabathia’s first name, it was his grade.
joel.sherman@nypost.com