MLB

Jeter knocks No. 2,998, but Yankees fall out of first place

For a player who has defined winning, there is something wrong with Derek Jeter’s slow march to 3,000 hits. As he inches closer to the historic milestone the Yankees are losing and have slipped out of first place in the AL East.

Jeter moved to within two hits of 3,000 last night at a Yankee Stadium that was swollen with flesh and wild with anticipation that history was going to be made.

It wasn’t, since Jeter’s leadoff double in the first inning was his only hit in five at-bats. And a victory eluded the Yankees, who fell 5-1 to the Rays in front of 47,787.

CAPTAIN’S QUEST FOR 3,000

BOX SCORE

Since Jeter returned Monday from a three-week stint on the DL due to a strained right calf, the Yankees are 1-3.

“It is,” Jeter said when asked if losing is taking something away from the chase. “We have faced some tough pitching the last few days.”

When Jeter doubled off Jeff Niemann’s first pitch for hit No. 2,998 he believed there was a chance to end the hunt.

“I would be lying to you if I said it wasn’t attainable today (after the double),” said Jeter, who grounded out to third to strand two in the second, was robbed of a hit by third baseman Sean Rodriguez in the fifth, grounded to short in the eighth and made the final out of the game with a third ground ball to Rodriguez.

The Yankees’ fourth loss in five games coupled with the Red Sox winning sent the Yankees into second place in the AL East, one-half length back.

“There was a lot of electricity,” Mark Teixeira said. “I wish we would have played better. We were pretty flat.”

Jeter is 4-for-18 (.222) since coming off the DL and 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

With everybody obsessed about Jeter becoming the first Yankee ever and the 28th in history to reach 3,000, other things are getting overlooked.

Bartolo Colon’s four-game winning streak ended with a thud when the right-hander gave up five runs and 10 hits in 52/3 innings. He is 6-4.

Then there is the Yankees’ recent inability to hit in the clutch. Across the past 10 games, the Yankees are hitting .204 (20-for-98) and went hitless in eight at-bats last night.

They had runners at the corners in the first inning with one out, but Niemann fanned Alex Rodriguez (0-for-4) with a breaking ball and retired Robinson Cano on a grounder to the right side.

Jorge Posada’s one-out single in the second was followed by Russell Martin’s double, but with runners at second and third, Niemann got Brett Gardner to foul out and Jeter to ground out.

With Charles and Dorothy Jeter watching from their suite that also housed girlfriend Minka Kelly and former teammate Tino Martinez, Jeter had family and friends doing the same thing everybody else in the Stadium was doing: rooting for two more hits.

Dick Groch, the scout who signed Jeter out of high school in 1992 and told his bosses that “The only place this kid is going is to Cooperstown” when the club had concerns Jeter was going to attend Michigan, was on hand. So, too, were Joe Torre and Don Zimmer.

With three games left before the All-Star break, the odds favor Jeter bagging 3,000 hits. The same can’t be said about the Yankees’ chances to shed their recent losing ways because they aren’t hitting.

george.king@nypost.com