"It's not any fun, that's for sure. It's frustrating. . . . People have to step up. We have to do a better job in the bullpen. We have to do a better job everywhere," said Joe Girardi, insisting he hasn't lost patience in his pen.

He must have the patience of Job, dealing with the second-worst bullpen in Baseball.

"My job is to get the best out of them, and you have to believe in them. And I do believe in them," Giardi said. "Have they struggled? Absolutely, yes they have. But these guys have also done the job for me since I've been here, too. We have to find a way to turn this around. We have to find a way to get outs out of our bullpen."

Albaladejo relieved Phil Coke, and immediately saw Ramiro Pena put leadoff hitter Jason Bay on with a fielding error. Bay stole second and took third on a groundout. Then Albaladejo hit Jeff Bailey to put runners on first and third, and set the table for his undoing.

Jason Varitek plated Bay with a sacrifice fly, and Nick Green drove in Drew with a single to right. Suddenly after two unearned runs, the deficit was 6-3. And Melancon was charged with another in the ninth, walking the bases loaded. Dave Robertson came in and nearly got out of it, but walked in a run with two outs.

"One play they had, and I hit a batter. It was my inning [to close out]," Albaladejo said. "Everybody makes errors. It doesn't matter. I had the chance to close my inning. One hit batter and one bloop single, not much I can do."

The Yankees bullpen came into last night with a bloated 6.50 ERA, better only than the Angels, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

"Any time you're trying to come back you've got to limit the other team. When we cut it to 4-3, we had an opportunity to tie it," Derek Jeter said. "Those runs there obviously hurt, because when you're trying to come back from one as opposed to two or three more, it makes it difficult."