NEW YORK — The ball jumped off Rod Barajas' bat and Xavier Nady sprinted in. In a heartbeat, the Yankees' left fielder realized he'd made a mistake. Johnny Damon already was yelling "back, back," but by the time Nady reversed direction and reached the edge of the warning track, the ball was over his head.

"I saw him turned around and I knew he was in trouble. And we were in trouble," manager Joe Girardi would say later.

The first-inning mistake led to two extra Toronto runs, which led to one more disappointing Andy Pettitte start, which led to a second consecutive Yankee loss, 6-2, yesterday afternoon. Together, all of it seems to be leading to the first meaningless Yankee September in 14 years.

"I think everyone is kind of in shock right now," Nady said. "Obviously it's a tough loss and now we've got to hit the road for a lot of games. Hopefully we can get on a roll. It's been tough. We've got to start playing better or we're going to find ourselves out of it."

The Yankees begin a grueling 10-game road trip with an afternoon makeup game in Detroit, followed by three versus first-place Tampa in St. Petersburg, Fla., followed by a cross-country flight for three in Seattle and ending with three at AL West-leading Anaheim. That they leave with the bitter disappointment of Saturday's late-inning collapse and Sunday's early-inning mistake only intensifies their urgency and desperation. The Yankees are seven games in back of Boston for the wild card and can be mathematically eliminated from the division race during this trip.

That makes the possibility of returning for the final 10-game homestand to play out what essentially will be a museum retrospective of Yankee Stadium, which closes this season.

"That would be extremely disappointing," Pettitte said. "I hope that won't happen."

As usual, Pettitte willingly shouldered the blame for losing his fourth decision in seven starts. It's becoming increasingly clear the veteran left-hander no longer is the pitcher who can rescue this team when it needs him most. Instead of using his left arm to lift the Yankees, he buried them with a bad first inning. The Yankees trailed, 3-0, when the inning was over. And against Toronto starter Roy Halladay, they never recovered.

"I feel like this is when I'm supposed to be winning some ballgames and I'm letting the team down big time," said Pettitte, who gave up 10 hits and six runs over 6$ innings. "There's not a whole lot to say except it's frustrating. I feel like guys were battling."

The Yankees fought to within 4-2 on solo home runs by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi in the fourth and sixth innings, respectively. "And then the manager sends me back out there in the seventh and I give up more," Pettitte said. "I feel like I'm not doing my job."

The job for all of the Yankees now is to convince themselves that the growing sense of certainty that the playoffs are out of reach doesn't take hold. They are saying the right things. "When things are down, that's when people show their true colors," Girardi said. "This is when character comes out."

Said Pettitte: "I still believe we can pull this off. I'm looking for a miracle here."

And from Damon: "We have to take the field with some pride. You're able to wear a New York Yankee uniform. When I'm taking the field, I'm trying the best that I can. I know trying doesn't guarantee you a hit, guarantee you a win. You have to just still kind of enjoy playing the game. It's tough to enjoy when the team is losing and you have this uphill battle, but we are playing baseball. It's great to look around and see all these faces in this clubhouse, all these future Hall of Famers.

"Yeah, some guys are past their prime and all that stuff, but it's playing baseball. It's enjoying being around these guys. And if you can't enjoy it, then you're beat already."