Yankee Crap

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- On a night that Alex Rodriguez lost his 23-game hitting streak and New York tumbled into last place, the Yankees searched for positives to take away from their longest losing streak in nearly two years.

"We can't point fingers. We're still in this together," Johnny Damon said Tuesday night after Tampa Bay pitching cooled off A-Rod and Carl Crawford's first career grand slam rallied the Devil Rays to a 6-4 victory.

The Yankees (8-11) went 0-5 on a trip that began with three losses at Boston, their longest losing streak since a six-game slide from May 28 to June 3, 2005.

"It's tough," said Derek Jeter, who left after being hit with a pitch in the first inning. "We should have won a few of them, but it didn't happen. It's just one of those things you have to work yourself through."

A-Rod hit 13th and 14th homers to tie the major league record for home runs in April on Monday, but went 0-for-3 with a walk against Scott Kazmir and Shawn Camp, who struck out the slugger in his final at-bat.

Rodriguez had hit safely in 18 consecutive games to start the season and 23 straight dating to last September.

"The only thing I can tell this ballclub is you can't start forcing it," manager Joe Torre said. "You just have to continue doing what you're doing. You can only do what you do. If you're out there trying to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, it's going to come back and bite you."

New York's Chien-Ming Wang (0-1), in his first start of the season, allowed four runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings after being activated from the disabled list earlier in the day. He departed after Dioner Navarro singled and B.J. Upton doubled to start the Devil Rays' seventh.

And the good times keep on rolling!