NEW YORK YANK-EEE-S: Russell Martin, unable to hang on to Dewayne Wise’s throw as Elliot Johnson scores in the third inning, made two of three Yankees errors last night in a 7-4 loss to Tampa Bay. (
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The best team in the AL East delivered a stinker Tuesday night in a ballpark it can’t win in.
For the second straight night the Yankees flushed two leads and lost to the Rays, 7-4, in front of 26,453 at Tropicana Field.
Unlike Monday night when the onus fell on David Robertson and Mark Teixeira, last night’s clunker had many hands attached to it.
“Tonight wasn’t a good game for us,’’ Joe Girardi said. “We have to put up a good game [today].’’
Girardi was being kind. Truthfully, it would be hard for the Yankees to perform worse in any of their 82 remaining games.
Catcher Russell Martin dropped an out at the plate that led to three unearned runs and erased a 3-0 lead in the third. His throwing error in the seventh helped construct a double steal and led to two runs. And he went 0-for-4, is 0-for-23 and in a 4-for-50 funk.
“This is pretty much my loss,’’ said Martin, who watched the Rays go 5-for-5 in steals. “The play in the third inning was pretty much the difference in the game.’’
Robinson Cano thought there were two outs instead of one and was doubled off first for the final out in the opening inning on a routine fly ball.
“[Forgetting the outs] shouldn’t happen,’’ said Cano, who drove in the second of two first-inning runs against James Shields, who improved to 8-5 with a rare win over the Yankees. “There is no excuse for that.’’
Third base coach Rob Thomson attempted to score Cano from first in the sixth inning on Raul Ibanez’ one-out double into the right-field corner and failed.
“There was one out and [Eric Chavez] coming to the plate and I got too aggressive,’’ Thomson said. “That took the wind out of our sails. It was a poor decision all the way around. I made the decision too early and stuck with it.’’
Even though three of the six runs Ivan Nova gave up were unearned, the pitcher didn’t dodge his part in the stinker.
“I didn’t have fastball command,’’ said Nova, who lost for the first time since May 19 and is 9-3. “I can’t make excuses, I got hit today.’’
In six-plus innings Nova gave up seven hits, walked two, hit a batter and fanned five. A two-run homer by Sean Rodriguez in the fourth erased a 4-3 Yankees lead that Dewayne Wise provided with a third-inning homer.
All of the mistakes led to the Yankees’ ninth straight loss to the Rays at Tropicana. It also dropped the Yankees’ record against AL East teams to 11-12 this season.
And today they will ask neophyte David Phelps (three major league starts) to match Rays ace David Price in order to avoid losing three straight to the Rays in Tropicana for the second time this year. The Rays swept the opening series of the season and haven’t lost to the Yankees since last July.
As for Martin, he insists the struggles at the plate aren’t affecting him behind it.
“Offensively I have been pretty bad all year,’’ said Martin, who is hitting .182. “I am just not swinging at my pitch, I am over-aggressive right now. I am expanding the zone too much and trying to get three hits every at-bat.’’
george.king@nypost.com