OAKLAND, Calif. -- The mood in the Yankees' clubhouse following Sunday's 4-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics wasn't what you might expect.

No one seemed fazed about losing the final six games on a 1-6 West Coast trip to Anaheim and Oakland.

There were no long faces, no signs of anyone being upset as players packed for a long fight back to New York that would lead into a Monday off day and then a homestand that begins Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Angels.

"You know at some point you're going to go through tough spells and we just went through one and we've got to bounce back Tuesday," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

Easier said than done.

After all, there was a lot of bad on this roadtrip that could have a carryover.

Here are the 5 worst parts of the Yankees road trip:

1. CC ON DL

Left-hander CC Sabathia straining his hamstring last Tuesday in a start against the Angels was a big blow.

First off, Sabathia is having a good season (7-2, 3.46 ERA, 13 starts) and he'd been great since mid-May (5-1, 0.99 ERA, 6 starts).

The ramifications of Sabathia being shelved for at least 2-to-3 weeks and maybe more greatly weakens a rotation that has been the Yankees' biggest surprise this season. On Sunday, Sabathia's first turn was taken by young righty Luis Cessa, who was called up from Triple-A to make his first start of the season and allowed four runs over four innings in a loss.

Sabathia to Cessa is a huge drop off.

Beyond that, now the Yankees have two weak links in their rotation with No. 1 starter Masahiro Tanaka having a terrible season.

2. SANCHEZ INJURY

The Yankees are feeling fortunate that catcher Gary Sanchez was back starting Sunday after suffering a groin injury two nights earlier that could have been a lot worse.

The ongoing problem here, however, is that Sanchez was as hot as he's been all season before he got hurt stealing second base in the ninth inning of Friday's game in Oakland, and since returning he's hitless with a strikeout pinch-hitting on Saturday and an 0-for-4 collar on Sunday with two fly balls, a groundout and a whiff.

Five at-bats with no hits is nothing in baseball, but before Sanchez' injury he hit .500 with five homers and 17 RBIs over 28 at-bats in seven games.

It's possible that Sanchez's time off stopped him from being as locked in as he was.

3. AL EAST RACE

The Yankees began their road trip leading the American League East by a season-high four games.

A week later, they're tied at the top with the Red Sox, who gained a share of first with a win in Houston on Sunday night.

"Listen, we're still in first place," left fielder Brett Gardner said after Sunday's loss. "If you told me June 20 or whatever we'd be in first place, I would have signed up for that. I think everybody would rather be eight or 10 games up right now, but that's just not too realistic with the division that we're in. It's a fight every game."

Gardner's right, but if the Yankees had just gone 3-4 on the trip instead of 1-6 they'd have made into Monday's off day with a two-game cushion.

4. INFERIOR OPPONENTS

This West Coast trip was a blown opportunity for the Yankees because of who they were facing ... the Angels for three games with Mike Trout on the disabled list and then the four against an Athletics team that went into the series last in the AL East and losers of six of its previous seven.

They should have won six of seven, not lost six of seven.

5. BLOWN LEADS

The worst losses to deal with in baseball are ones in which teams lose late.

The Yankees' dealt with that three nights in a row during their week in California.

Last Tuesday night in Anaheim, the Yankees were gunning for their seventh win in a row when the Angels rallied to tie in the eighth and then won in 11 innings.

A day later, the Yankees blew a 4-0 first-inning lead and were tied 5-5 in the seventh before losing 7-5 on Wednesday night.

And then on Thursday night, the Yankees blew the first of four with Oakland 8-7 after they scored a 10th-inning run to pull ahead and then allowed two in the bottom of the inning and lost.

Those three losses led into three more losses in a row, and now the Yankees are in a six-game slide that is their longest since they dropped six straight early last season.

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.