Alex Rodriguez wasn’t the only one to murder the Yankees last night.
Nevertheless, his wild right arm cut deeply and a fifth-inning strikeout with the bases juiced was too big of a blow to recover from.
Though a 7-3 loss to the Rays on the eve of the Subway Series goes on CC Sabathia’s record, it also rests heavily on the cleanup hitter who has gone frigid since slugging a monstrous homer Sunday in Detroit.
Rodriguez’s throwing error in the third inning led to two unearned runs, and though he battled David Price for 11 pitches in the fifth, the whiff took the steam out of a big scoring chance and led to the Yankee Stadium crowd of 39,891 to shower Rodriguez with boos.
Because Rodriguez opted to split rather than rehash the torturous performance, Joe Girardi was left to spin the ugly night.
“Alex fouled off a bunch of tough pitches,’’ the manager said of Rodriguez, who fouled off five before flailing at a 79-mph curveball for the second out. “The guy was throwing 98 [mph]. He made pitch after pitch. That’s what made it so tough.’’
Rodriguez gets points for battling, but the Yankees are paying him gobs of money to produce. Trailing, 5-1, against an elite pitcher, Rodriguez’s responsibility is to do something other than whiff.
The failure to deliver has been a season-long experience for Rodriguez and middle-of-the-lineup fraternity brother Robinson Cano, who followed Rodriguez’s strikeout with a stress-free ground out that ended a 38-pitch inning by Price without the Yankees denting the plate.
“I haven’t done my job; there is no excuse for that,’’ Cano said of hitting with the bases loaded (1-for-12; .083) and runners in scoring position (8-for-53; .151). “I have to do my job.’’
Sabathia didn’t dominate but three earned runs in seven innings should have been good enough for a victory. Instead he fell to 7-3.
As always, the staff ace looked beyond Rodriguez’s throwing error in the third and pointed to a 1-2 pitch to Drew Sutton, the No. 9 hitter, in the fourth as a killer.
“If I made a pitch to Sutton . . . It’s frustrating not being able to pick up the guys,’’ said Sabathia, who watched Sutton perfectly place a soft fly ball into the left-field corner just out Jayson Nix’s reach that scored two runs. “Errors are part of the game. It’s more frustrating not being able to make pitches and pick the guys up.’’
Rodriguez wasn’t alone wearing the goat horns. Curtis Granderson tied a career-high with four strikeouts and went 0-for-5. Cano left two on the first and the bases loaded in the fifth. Cory Wade turned a 5-2 deficit in the ninth into a 7-2 ditch.
The loss halted a three-game winning streak and left the Yanks one-half game behind the Orioles and Rays, who share the top spot in the AL East.
Since reaching the back wall at Comerica Park Sunday, Rodriguez is 2-for-13 with seven strikeouts. For the season he is batting .100 (1-for-10) with the bases loaded and .167 (9-for-54) with runners in scoring position.
Girardi absolved Rodriguez of doing anything wrong regarding his approach to Elliot Johnson’s routine ground ball that jump-started a two-run third. Then he praised Rodriguez for battling Price.
Yet, in the end Rodriguez’s arm and bat produced self-inflicted wounds that were too deep to close.
george.king@nypost.com
