MLB

Yankees drop third straight to Tigers

DETROIT — What a Stinko de Mayo.

The Yankees sprinkled Comerica Park with a very foul odor yesterday on Cinco de Mayo.

The Yankees committed three throwing errors — two by substitute shortstop Eduardo Nunez. His second error brought in two unearned runs in the seventh inning, when A.J. Burnett also hit Ryan Raburn in the back with a pitch to load the bases. Raburn was bunting at the time.

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“We pitched well. We didn’t play defense and we didn’t hit when we needed to,” Mark Teixeira said of the 6-3 loss to the Tigers in front of 30,572.

The defeat stretched the Yankees’ longest losing streak of the season to three games and sent them to Texas for three games against the Rangers in a severe funk.

In the seventh, with two outs, runners on second and third and the Tigers leading 3-2, the strong-armed Nunez fielded Don Kelly’s routine grounder, but his high throw to first glanced off Teixeira’s glove.

“I feel comfortable catching the ball and I am making bad throws, it happens,” said Nunez, who has five errors on the season after two (one fielding, one throwing) on April 28 and a throwing error on April 2. “It’s part of the game.”

Nunez, who went 2-for-4 and drove in a run subbing for Derek Jeter, also made a throwing error in the fourth, but Burnett worked around it.

Nunez’s throwing woes might stem from playing too deep and relying on his strong arm.

“Playing back, once you catch the ball the runner is close to first base,” said Alex Rodriguez. “You have to come get the ball. He will get it with time. I made a lot of the same mistakes. I think he will be fine.”

Rodriguez, who like Jeter wasn’t in the starting lineup, but entered after Eric Chavez broke the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot running out a triple in the fourth, said the issue was discussed with Nunez. Rodriguez didn’t say who talked to the 23-year-old infielder, but it likely was Jeter.

As for the Yankees’ bats, manager Joe Girardi pointed out that they produced line drives that found leather. Nevertheless, three runs, one a window-dressing deal in the ninth, hiked their total to five runs in the three-game losing streak.

Then there was Burnett (4-2), who shouldered the loss. His errant pickoff toss to first in the first inning allowed Kelly to go from first to third. Kelly scored on a sacrifice fly.

Burnett, who allowed five runs (two earned) on three hits in seven innings, and didn’t give up a hit until Ramon Santiago’s leadoff single in the sixth, wouldn’t blame Nunez for the Tigers’ three-run seventh.

“It doesn’t matter what Nooney does, it’s definitely on me,” said Burnett, who lost the plate in his final frame. “You can’t drill a dude in the back in a bunt situation. That’s the best I felt in a while as far as repeating my delivery. It’s tough to swallow.”

Rodriguez acknowledged the Yankees need to tighten it up.

“We take pride in fundamental baseball and we haven’t done that the last three days,” said Rodriguez, who came into the game on a 5-for-40 (.125) bender, but produced two singles.

The Yankees started yesterday leading the majors with 46 homers, but have hit just one in their last four games.

“We are not hitting home runs and not hitting with runners in scoring position and that’s the name of the game,” said Teixeira, whose homer Tuesday night was the lone long ball in Detroit. “If you aren’t hitting homers, you better get a double with the bases loaded.”

Including yesterday’s 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position, the Yankees batted .188 (6-for-32) in the clutch against the Tigers. On top of that, they had six runners thrown out on the bases in the first two games.

And they finished it off yesterday with Burnett plunking a batter (Raburn) who was giving up an out, and making three costly errors.

“It stinks,” said Burnett, whose assessment was a lot more accurate than those three throws to first.

george.king@nypost.com