YANKEES FALLING APART

Even before Rivalry Week ended with a thud - or more specifically an Alex Rodriguez strikeout - Joe Girardi already was looking forward to its conclusion. Hampered by a rash of injuries - and undermined largely by a poor week of pitching both in the rotation and in the bullpen - the Yankees won just two of seven games against Boston, Tampa Bay and the Mets. They suddenly are a season-high six games behind the Rays - who took the rubber game in Houston Sunday - in the AL East after another failed comeback bid in the ninth inning of Sunday night's 6-4 loss at Citi Field. "It's been a tough one," said starter CC Sabathia, who was tagged for six runs for the second time in his last three starts, including two homers by previously powerless Mets outfielder Jason Bay. "We have a veteran ballclub and we have to keep pushing through until guys get healthy and we get our full lineup back." It's true that the Yankees are without one-third of their regular starting nine - Jorge Posada last week joining Curtis Granderson and Nick Johnson on the disabled list. But fill-ins such as Francisco Cervelli, Juan Miranda, Kevin Russo and Marcus Thames have provided several key hits in recent games. Derek Jeter rapped three hits Sunday night to reach 2,800 in his career, but Mark Teixeira was 2-for-27 before a fluke infield hit during the ninth-inning rally after Brett Gardner had been called out on a close play at first. "As far as the replay, you can't tell either way. If he gets on there for us, it's a big hit," said Girardi, who argued the Gardner call. "The replays, from what I understand, were not conclusive either way, so what are you going to do?" Teixeira's second hit set the stage for Rodriguez as the go-ahead run against closer Francisco Rodriguez, but K-Rod fanned A-Rod on a full-count changeup to seal the Mets' rubber-game victory. "It's right where you want to be, a great matchup. He gave me some pitches to hit but I fouled them back. . . . You wish you could have those back," A-Rod said. "But I think it was a good sign the last two innings. For a game that was 6-0 to come down the last at-bat, I'll take my chances there." Still, asked about mounting disappointment over a week's worth of failure against divisional and geographical foes, Rodriguez acknowledged, "There's no question there is a lot of frustration, because we know we're capable of doing a lot more, but collectively we're just not getting it done right now." Even before the game, Girardi had admitted "we've had better weeks, I think you could definitely say that." He listed what he described as a "multitude of problems," including a fallback in starting pitching, bullpen issues and an inability to hit in the clutch. "If you push the panic button every time you have a bad week, you'd probably push it more than once," Girardi said. "We just haven't played particularly well. . . . Obviously we want to get back to winning series after series and playing better." (NY Daily News)