MLB

Swisher, Yankees can’t bail out Colon

Bartolo Colon put the Yankees in an early hole, and Nick Swisher did his best to try to dig them out, only to come up a few feet short.

The Yankees trimmed the Athletics lead from six runs to three with two outs in the eighth inning. Then in the ninth, Jorge Posada led off with a homer, making it a two-run game. The next two Yankees reached, and soon the bases were loaded with one out.

“You really can’t believe it,” Mark Teixeira said of the rally.

BOX SCORE

One out and one run-scoring walk later, it was a one-run game. With two outs. And the bases loaded. And Nick Swisher up.

Facing Oakland closer Andrew Bailey, with the Yankees on the verge of a game-winning rally, Swisher, who mashed a three-run homer in the eighth, smacked a shot to deep center.

“You want to try to be the hero, for sure,” Swisher said. “I’m not going to lie if I didn’t think right off the bat I was.”

Swisher’s blast, however, was hauled in by Oakland center fielder Coco Crisp on the warning track, and the Yankees suffered a 6-5 loss in The Bronx.

Playing without Alex Rodriguez, who missed the game with a sprained left thumb, the Yankees saw are now in a virtual first-place AL East tie with the Red Sox, who beat Texas 11-5. They also saw Bartolo Colon give another poor outing.

The hefty 38-year-old right-hander, served up five runs in 6 1⁄3 innings against one of the AL’s worst offensive teams. It was his second straight start in which he allowed five runs (the previous turn was against the Royals). Colon (8-8, 3.71 ERA), who has allowed four homers in the two starts, hasn’t won since July 30.

A revelation for much of the season, Colon had given up more than four earned runs in a game just three times this season before last week. Now Colon has done it in back-to-back starts. He has logged 131 innings this season, by far his most since he pitched 222 2⁄3 in 2005.

Manager Joe Girardi said, “We’ll have to watch him carefully.”

Despite the recent struggles, Colon said he is OK.

“I feel really happy, very strong,” he said.

Colon, who calls his late-moving two-seam fastball his “best pitch,” barely threw it last night, saying he went with it just twice. Colon said in his last start against the Royals, both home runs he surrendered were off the two-seamer.

Nevertheless, it seems peculiar he abandoned the pitch. It’s unclear if catcher Russell Martin was calling for the two-seamer and Colon was shaking him off or whether the duo simply decided not to throw the pitch often.

Colon is 2-7 with a 4.64 ERA in night games this season. That might not bode well for the playoffs, because most of the Yankees games probably would be at night.

Until the late innings, the Yankees did nothing offensively against Oakland starter Brandon McCarthy. But with two outs and two on in the eighth and the Yankees down 6-0, Swisher clobbered his three-run homer and the rally continued in the ninth against closer Andrew Bailey. Posada homered over the Yankee bullpen (trimming the lead to 6-4), Martin doubled, Brett Gardner reached on an error and Derek Jeter bunted them to second and third.

Curtis Granderson walked to load the bases, but Teixeira fouled out to third. Robinson Cano walked, bringing in a run and making it 6-5. But then Swisher couldn’t complete the rally.

mark.hale@nypost.com