"There's a certain element of embarrassment, no question," Yankees Manager Joe Torre said. "If you have a lot of pride in what you do and somebody has their way with you, you have to take your lumps. There's no question. You can't just turn the lights off and go home. You have to stay there and endure what you have to endure. If you accept winning, you have to endure losing. Something like this is hard to handle. It's something you have to bounce back from. It counts as one loss."

But every loss seems compounded because the Red Sox are soaring, having won 13 of their last 14 games, while the Yankees have stumbled, going 6-8.

"You can't worry about the Red Sox," catcher Jorge Posada said. "We've got to worry about us. We've got to worry about what we can do here. We've got to remember that we're still ahead. I think everybody's got to look at this game. You've got to look in the mirror and ask some questions.

"How good are we? We've got to look inside. We are a good team. We are still in first place. We've just got to do it. We've got to come out here and play good ball and just turn it around."

It would be difficult to pinpoint the most teeth-grinding moment for the Yankees, or for Steinbrenner or the 51,777 fans in attendance. Was it Javier Vazquez raising red flags about the team's starting pitching? Was it right fielder Kenny Lofton misreading the flight of a ball hit by Omar Vizquel, who wound up with a double? Was it Hideki Matsui, after scratching out one of the Yankees' five hits, being picked off second base? Was it when Vizquel picked up his sixth hit in the eighth inning, tying an A.L. record for a nine-inning game? Or was it just the numbing task of watching the numbers flash on the scoreboard?