ANAHEIM – The sign on the door leading out of the Yankees’ clubhouse late Tuesday night read: “Early Hitting. 2 p.m.”

Considering the Yankees had just been blanked, 1-0, by the Angels, held to three meaningless singles in 11 innings, the afternoon batting practice was a splendid idea. Especially when you figure the Yankees had scored two runs in the previous 26 frames.

However, nowhere was a sign offering a time and place for base-running tips. Judging how the Yankees ran the bases Tuesday night, some remedial work definitely was needed.

So when Joe Torre closed the clubhouse at 5 p.m. last night to hold a meeting with his ice-cold club, it was assumed he was going to bring up costly base-running mistakes made by Gary Sheffield and Kenny Lofton from the night before.

Yet Torre got that out of the way during Tuesday night’s game, talking to the players in the dugout. No, yesterday’s get-together centered on the at-bats he saw Tuesday.

“We talked about the quality of at-bats,” Torre said. “It was a general meeting. We have come back so many times this year it’s hard for me to say they haven’t been aggressive, so it was just a reminder more so than anything else.”

Torre said he was hopeful the meeting and the early hitting session that was sparsely attended helped get Derek Jeter going.

“I like to hit a lot because it gives you repetitions,” said Jeter, who started last night buried at .190. “Or when you are not going good you try to find something good.”

Jeter was on the field with Alex Rodriguez, Homer Bush, John Flaherty and Tony Clark.

“I only like to hit on the field, I don’t like to hit in the cage,” said Jeter, who was 16-for-75 (.213) since ending a career-worst 0-for-32 slump.

The extra session was watched by Torre, Don Mattingly and Reggie Jackson.

“Hopefully he will find the same thing tonight that he had during the day,” Torre said of Jeter, who hit the ball well to right-center during the early BP and the regular pregame session. “He was hitting the ball better.”

Of course the Yankees’ bats required more work. But so, too, did Sheffield and Lofton because their base-running sins were costly.

Leading off the fourth inning, Sheffield hit a ground ball to Chone Figgins at third and didn’t run hard. Figgins’ throw pulled first baseman Casey Kotchman off the bag, and Sheffield was safe. With the count 2-2 on Posada, Sheffield said he saw the “Go” sign from third-base coach Luis Sojo and figured it was 3-2. So when Sheffield was three-quarters to second and saw Posada take a ball, he slowed up and was an easy out because the count was full.

“I thought it was 3-2 and saw the sign, that’s when I ran,” said Sheffield, who went 0-for-4 and injured his left ribs making a catch in the sixth inning.

Sheffield’s mistake was costly because Aaron Sele walked Posada and Hideki Matsui after the out at second. But it wasn’t as bad as Lofton’s base-running blunder in the eighth. Lofton, who singled in the first and third, drew a leadoff walk in the eighth. With Lofton on the run, Jeter dropped down a sacrifice bunt. That put Lofton in scoring position with Rodriguez at the plate against Frankie Rodriguez. But A-Rod never got the chance to put the Yankees ahead because Lofton foolishly was caught trying to steal third.

“I was being aggressive; they may have thrown the ball away,” was Lofton’s explanation.

Torre spoke with Lofton after the bonehead play and reminded him that he has to be 100 percent sure he can take the bag in a spot like that. F-Rod fanned A-Rod and the inning was over.

The Angels won in the bottom of the 11th on Adam Riggs’ bases-loaded single to right over a drawn-in outfield.

Way off pace

Heading into last night’s game with the Angels, Derek Jeter was batting .190 (31-for-163).

With 124 games remaining, Jeter should get approximately 500 at-bats the rest of the season.

Here’s a look at what Jeter would have to do the rest of the way to reach certain batting averages:

To bat He’d have to hit

.291 (career low) .324 (162-for-500)

.300 .336 (168-for-500)

.317 (career average) .358 (179-for-500)

.324 (last season) .368 (184-for-500)

.349 (career high) .400 (200-for-500)

.400 .468 (234-for-500)

At his current pace, Jeter will finish with 132 hits in 695 at-bats.

His average in eight full seasons is 192 hits in 603 at-bats.

Jeter has averaged 116 runs per each full season, scoring at least 104 every year but last.

He is on pace to score 55 runs.