OAKLAND — At the conclusion of this futility marathon, the boxscore revealed the ugly truth:
Mark Teixeira, Travis Hafner, Kevin Youkilis and Vernon Wells — the Yankees’ fourth-through-seventh hitters yesterday — combined to go 0-for-28 with 12 strikeouts.
“That’s a no-hitter for all of us,” the Georgia Tech product Teixeira calculated out loud. “That’s not good.”
No, it was pretty darn terrible, as some fantastic Yankees pitching went for naught in a brutal, 18-inning, 3-2 loss to the A’s at O.co Coliseum, sweeping the visitors out of northern California.
Perhaps a visit to the lousy Angels at the state’s other end, starting tonight at Angel Stadium, will soothe the Yankees’ ailing bats. Yet with a record of 37-29, already having overcome so much just to get here, it’s fair to wonder:
Are there enough potential rebounds in this Yankees lineup to send the team back in the right direction?
The Yankees now have a ghastly team on-base percentage of .305 — they were at .337 last year — and their 260 runs rank 11th in the American League. They wouldn’t have reached even that modest height without unexpectedly significant contributions from Hafner, Wells and Lyle Overbay.
But 96 games remain, and none of the injured position players (Francisco Cervelli, Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez) will be returning imminently. One or more might not return at all. So how do the Yankees solve this puzzle? They sure as heck can’t pitch much better than they have been.
Most painful for the Yankees yesterday, they put runners in scoring position in each of the first five extra innings and couldn’t bring a run home in any of them, going a combined 0-for-9 in those situations and stranding 11 baserunners just in the extra innings.
“We had a few opportunities to do it,” Wells said. “Obviously, collectively, we were pretty bad at it.”
Who from this collection can emerge with value? Teixeira is the one guy who 1) has a recent track record of success, albeit diminished from his career peak; and 2) has taken some good swings lately. He has 12 RBIs in 57 plate appearances since coming off the disabled list on May 31.
“This series was a lot better. Just keep working. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Teixeira said. “Keep swinging the bat well. The positive thing is, I’m driving in runs. I didn’t do it today. The first two games of the series were good.”
Youkilis has been dreadful since being activated the same night as Teixeira, putting up six hits and four walks in 45 plate appearances, striking out 13 times.
“A lot of us didn’t get the job done. I’m one of them,” Youkilis said. “It was [bleep]-poor performance in my mind. I need to start stepping it up and playing a lot better.”
It’s worth remembering that Youkilis’ 2012 performance diminished considerably from 2011, and the downward slope simply might be continuing now.
Wells — whose season slash line is now down to an ugly .226 AVG, .274 OBP, and .386 SLG — looks cooked. He probably should be starting against left-handers only, which means the Yankees either need to give Overbay more of an opportunity in the outfield, defense be damned, or they should dispose of Overbay and call up the healing Brennan Boesch, who has been on the minor-league disabled list with an injured left shoulder.
“You get frustrated from time to time. I’m human,” Wells said. “But you keep working. You try to work your way out of it. That’s what I love about this game. You never have it figured out.”
It’s doubtful that too many Yankees are loving Wells’ decline. As for Hafner, with 52 games played, he’s approaching his total for all of last year (66) and is within shouting distance of his 2011 total (94). It’s worth wondering how much he has left in the tank. Even 2012 A-Rod could help considerably at designated hitter, or third base.
Asked if a loss like this would be difficult to shake off for the 0-for-28 quartet, manager Joe Girardi said, “If they’re young kids, you worry about it. Because they’re veterans, I think they’ll be able to get it out.”
This might not be a mental issue, though. The Yankees need more firepower. Can this crew keep things afloat until the re-enforcements arrive? That once again is in doubt.
kdavidoff@nypost.com