Yanks Drop Another To Rays

Since clinching a postseason berth, the New York Yankees have looked nothing like a playoff team.

New York made three errors and allowed all but one of Tampa Bay's runs to score with two outs as the Yankees lost their third straight to the Devil Rays, 10-6 Monday night.

"The fine-tune button fell off our machine," manager Joe Torre said. "We still have work to do. Obviously, we stunk as a team tonight. We will have to turn it around as a team as well."

Fred McGriff and Bubba Trammell homered and Dave Martinez drove in three runs for the Devil Rays. Tampa Bay had lost 17 of their first 18 games to New York including all nine at Yankee Stadium before winning the final three games of the four-game series.

The Yankees rallied to win the opener 4-3 in 11 innings Friday on rookie Alfonso Soriano's homer, and clinched their fifth straight playoff berth when Oakland lost that night.

Since then, they've looked sluggish, losing three straight to the last-place Devil Rays.

"We could have easily swept them," Trammell said. "We had some things to prove and we came in to prove them."

The Yankees have six games remaining to prepare for the playoffs and wrap up their third AL East title in four years. New York's magic number remained at three after Boston beat Baltimore 5-3.

The Yankees (94-62) are one game behind Cleveland for the best record in the AL and oly one game ahead of Texas for home-field in a potential playoff matchup.

"I think we showed this series that home-field is only good if you play well," Torre said. "It would be nice to have home-field, but unless you play well, you won't win."

Mike Duvall (1-1) allowed one run in 2 2-3 innings in relief of Dave Eiland for the win. Jeff Sparks got four outs for his first career save.

Hideki Irabu (11-7) was knocked out after two innings for the second time in four starts, jeopardizing his spot on the postseason roster.

"I haven't been thinking about it," Irabu said through a translator about making the postseason roster. "It's not something I can decide."

Irabu retired the first two batters in each inning before getting into trouble. He walked Jose Canseco with two outs in the first and McGriff followed with his 31st homer, giving him 100 RBIs on the season.

Another two-out walk cost Irabu in the second. Aaron Ledesma followed DiFelice's walk with a bloop single to center. Miguel Cairo lined an RBI single to right and Martinez followed with a two-run single to make it 5-0.

Errors by third baseman Scott Brosius and shortstop Derek Jeter led to three unearned runs in the fourth. Martinez hit an RBI double and Canseco added a two-run single.

"We were sloppy all around," Jeter said. "If we want to go out and win the division we have to play better. Boston isn't going away and no one will lay down for us."

Left fielder Ricky Ledee's error on DiFelice's double in the fifth allowed Tony Graffanino to score. The three errors tied a season high for New York.

Jeter hit an RBI double and Paul O'Neill had an RBI single in the third, and Ledee hit a solo homer in the fifth.

The Yankees added three runs in the eighth on Tino Martinez's RBI single and a two-run single by pinch-hitter Chili Davis.

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