ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees looked at their remaining schedule and saw opportunity.
It was filled with teams like the Rays, Red Sox and Orioles, all of which the Yankees are chasing as they make a bid for the postseason.
But that doesn’t do much good if they don’t actually win those games.
The Yankees lost a second straight to the Rays Saturday night, 4-2 at Tropicana Field, another example their surge back into the playoff race may have been more a product of playing a terrible Toronto team last week than anything the Yankees were doing themselves, as they fell 4 ½ games out of the second wild-card spot.
And while CC Sabathia was OK, giving up three runs in 6 ¹/₃ innings, he wasn’t good enough to beat Tampa Bay’s ace lefty, David Price.
There’s been no shortage of analysis about what’s wrong with Sabathia, who fell to 11-11.
Has he lost too much weight? Is he hiding another arm injury? Are his mechanics out of whack?
Whatever the reason, Sabathia has not been himself most of this season and that didn’t change last night.
After looking like his old self for five innings, Sabathia was hit hard once again in the Rays’ three-run sixth.
A single by Sam Fuld was followed by a four-pitch walk to Desmond Jennings. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild came out to talk to Sabathia after he fell behind Ben Zobrist 2-0, and Zobrist promptly doubled in both runners to tie the game at 2-2.
Evan Longoria, who entered the game 19-for-50 with six homers against Sabathia, drove in Zobrist with a single to give the Rays the lead.
Before the game, manager Joe Girardi tried to dissect what was wrong with the left-hander, who was 2-4 with a 6.85 ERA in his previous eight starts.
“He’s had a tough year,” Girardi said. “His fastball has cut more and his changeup has cut more. Both have led to problems.”
But he dismissed the notion that, of all things, Sabathia had actually lost too much weight.
“It’s not like he’s 210 pounds,” Girardi said. “He’s still a big man. He’s still strong.”
Girardi pointed instead to Sabathia’s workload. Since his debut in 2001, he has thrown more pitches (42,889) than anyone else in the majors.
“That’s something people might attribute it to,” Girardi said of Sabathia’s woes.
And he knows there’s nothing he can do to help that.
“It’s not like a car where you can go in reverse,” Girardi said. “Like ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Except it went out the back.”
Indeed, that strategy didn’t work out well. And neither has most of 2013 for Sabathia.
The Yankees offense, which scored 23 runs in Sabathia’s previous two starts, didn’t have as much luck against Price, who shut them down until the fifth.
Alex Rodriguez and Vernon Wells opened with singles up the middle. Curtis Granderson struck out before Mark Reynolds added another single to load the bases.
Then Austin Romine, who has hit better lately, worked a walk off Price to score the game’s first run. Ichiro Suzuki’s groundout to second drove in Wells for a 2-0 lead before Eduardo Nunez popped out in foul territory to end the threat.
They didn’t score again.
Longoria provided the Rays with another run with a solo homer off Preston Claiborne in the eighth.
“We don’t have as much to make up as we did a few weeks ago,” Girardi said before the loss. “I think that gives the guys confidence. There are three or four teams grouped together and chances are if you catch one or two of them … you’ll catch everybody else.”
dan.martin@nypost.com