MLB

DOG DAYS: CANO STILL ON BENCH

Robinson Cano had a great view of the action last night. Too bad it was from the front row of Joe Girardi’s doghouse.

Just to ensure Cano understood that dogging it isn’t acceptable, Girardi benched the underachieving second baseman, a day after the manager yanked him from a game against the Rays for failing to hustle.

“I’ll continue to discuss some things with Robbie and we’ll move forward,” Girardi said before the Yankees beat the White Sox 4-2. “I don’t want what happened [Sunday] to happen again.”

In Sunday’s fourth inning, Cliff Floyd hit a grounder that deflected off Jason Giambi’s glove in Cano’s direction. Instead of pursuing the ball, Cano watched it, allowing Floyd to reach second.

It was hardly the first time this season that Cano made a boneheaded defensive play. Two weeks earlier, he helped cost the Yankees a game against the Blue Jays by making a nonchalant backhanded flip to second in an attempt to start a double play. The ball bounced in front of Derek Jeter for a Cano error, and the Blue Jays soon had a big inning.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time I play hard, I bust my [butt],” Cano said. “Sometimes you’re frustrated, and something that you do, you don’t realize that you’re doing it.”

Cano, who entered last night’s game as a pinch-runner in the eighth inning, said he had no problem with Girardi’s decision to bench him and echoed his comments from a day earlier, when he said he was embarrassed by the whole episode. Cody Ransom started in Cano’s spot at second base last night.

This nightmarish season can’t end fast enough for Cano, who is hitting .260 with 13 homers and 61 RBIs, just eight months after the Yankees rewarded him with a four-year, $30 million contract. The Yankees also have two option years that could make the deal worth $57 million.

mpuma@nypost.com