TORONTO — There is something barking in Bartolo Colon’s left hamstring. Now, the Yankees have to find out how serious it is.
“I will wait till [today] and see how I feel, but right now I am feeling really good,” Colon said in the aftermath of the Blue Jays shelling the Yankees, 16-7, in front of 37,342 at Rogers Centre.
Still, Colon admitted to being tentative with the leg that landed him on the disabled list last month.
“There is no pain at all, but every time I react and cover the base I get nervous about it,” said Colon, who couldn’t field two infield dribblers in the first that drove in runs. “I think my sinker isn’t sinking because I am thinking too much.”
Colon’s evening consisted of two-thirds of an inning, in which he gave up eight runs (three earned) and six hits. The first indication the leg was an issue surfaced in the first inning when Colon didn’t run hard to cover first base on a grounder to Mark Teixeira.
“I was unsure,” Colon, 38, said of his mindset on the way to first base. “It’s no excuse, I didn’t pitch good at all.”
The loss dropped the Yankees 1 1/2 games behind the AL East-leading Red Sox. The 16 runs and 20 hits by the winners were the most given up by the Yankees this season.
Trailing 9-0 after two innings, the Yankees scored four in the third and three in the sixth when Andruw Jones homered in each frame.
However, Boone Logan turned a two-run deficit into a four-run bulge and Sergio Mitre’s mop didn’t absorb much water.
The victory may have come with a price for the Jays because Jose Bautista, the majors’ leading home-run hitter with 31, left after the fourth inning with a twisted right ankle. He’s listed as day-to-day.
Joe Girardi, who said he will talk with the veteran right-hander today about his leg, put the blame on Brett Gardner losing a ball in the lights in the first inning and third baseman Eduardo Nunez booting a ball that would have been the third out for the ugly numbers next to Colon’s name.
“I don’t think we played good defense tonight,” said Girardi, who watched Russell Martin and Derek Jeter also make errors. “He could have gotten out of the first without giving up a run. It’s hard to figure out that start.”
Nunez, who has a team-high 11 errors, said his confidence isn’t eroding after getting caught on an in-between hop.
“This is an opportunity to show I can play third base and not just short,” said Nunez, who has started the past three games at third and will be the regular there with Alex Rodriguez on the DL.
While Girardi talked about the lack of defense, Martin had another take on it: The Blue Jays runners on second base were telling the hitters what was coming.
“They would turn their head toward the shortstop if it was a fastball and toward second base if it was an off-speed pitch,” Martin said. “By the time I picked up on it, it was too late.”
The shape of Colon’s hamstring is a big issue with the Yankees, who know the starting pitching market on the trade front is very thin. Ivan Nova, who was sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to make room for Phil Hughes when he returned from the DL, is an option if Colon has to go back on the shelf. But what the Yankees really need is for Colon to return to being the pitcher he was before the hamstring blew out.
Last night he wasn’t close to that hurler — RBI dribble singles and errors aside.
george.king@nypost.com