With more pep, Swisher returns to lineup

BALTIMORE -- The Yankees couldn't be sure if they'd have Nick Swisher in uniform when they boarded their flight early Wednesday morning, as the outfielder's skin tone was taking on a sickly pale hue.

But Swisher was bouncing around with something approaching his usual energy level and vocal volume at Camden Yards, an impressive recovery after he was forced out of Tuesday's game with flu-like symptoms.

"I'm like a whole new person," said Swisher, who also found time to completely shave his head.

Swisher could use a fresh start; he had just four hits in his last 17 at-bats entering play on Wednesday. He was hitting .218 with two homers and 14 RBIs.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that Swisher "didn't look too good" on the team's late-night flight from Tampa, Fla., and advised Swisher to communicate if he started to feel ill again.

"He seems to have a lot of life today, which is good," Girardi said. "My concern today is probably more, 'How long does the life last?'"

Yankees' damage control gives way to 6th straight ‘L’

On a day the Yankees wouldn’t let the odor of Posada Gate drift into the Gulf of Mexico they continued to stink on the field.

Hal Steinbrenner chaired a conference call with Derek Jeter, Yankees president Randy Levine and general manager Brian Cashman yesterday to clear the air about Jeter’s remarks about Jorge Posada’s behavior when the designated hitter asked out of the lineup on Saturday night.

“We are all on the same page,” was the way Jeter described the call.

Then Jeter and his underachieving teammates coughed up a four-run lead to the Rays on the way to a disheartening 6-5 loss in front of 25,024 at Tropicana Field.

It was the Yankees’ sixth straight loss and that is a season high that could easily stretch to seven tonight when up-and-down Ivan Nova faces James Shields, who is 4-1 with a 2.08 ERA. The Yankees have dropped 10 of 13.

The defeat also pushed them three games behind the AL East-leading Rays, who scored more than five runs at home this season for the first time (23 games).

“I know this group of guys. I know their character, heart and fight,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Every team goes through this and you have to get through to the other side.”

That is impossible to do when your second best pitcher — A.J. Burnett — flushes a four-run lead the lineup presented him against Rays ace David Price, who gave up a three-run homer to Curtis Granderson in the fifth.

“These guys gave me a chance and I let it go,” said Burnett, who gave up two-run home runs to Sam Fuld and B.J. Upton in a five-run sixth inning that erased a 5-1 Yankees lead. Johnny Damon also homered off Burnett (4-3). “I missed location, that’s the bottom line.”

Five runs against Price in five innings should be enough. But from the sixth through the ninth the Yankees failed to score. Rubbing salt in the raw wound was former Yankee bust Kyle Farnsworth producing a perfect ninth to secure the victory and his eighth save.

“It’s a tough one, we had a lead,” said Russell Martin, who went 2-for-4. “We are in a tough stretch right now. Good teams know how to get out of it and we are a good team.”

They were in April and chances are they will be good again at some point. Currently, they stink.

Alex Rodriguez’s problems at the plate continued with an 0-for-4 night that included three straight whiffs as the designated hitter. Rodriguez is in a 3-for-23 (.130) funk.

Derek Jeter went 0-for-3 with a walk and is in a 3-for-18 (.167) slide.

After Fuld homered Burnett retired the next two batters before walking Evan Longoria and wild-pitching him to second. That proved costly when Longoria scored on Matt Joyce’s single and cut the Yankees’ lead to 5-4.

Up came Upton, who grounded into a fielder’s choice in the second when Burnett worked out of a jam and popped up in the fifth. At that point, Upton was 7-for-38 (.184) against Burnett and Girardi felt good about his pitcher’s chances.

“It just didn’t happen,” Girardi said.

Hasn’t for a quite a while and when it will is simply a guess at this point.