“I haven’t seen anything like this since the Anita Bryant concert.”

— Dr. Rumack, “Airplane!”

OAKLAND, Calif. — What to do now with J.A. Happ, in the wake of his latest poor effort?

The brutal truth for these Yankees, who still possess the American League’s best record despite a three-game losing streak, is that it makes no sense to do anything besides follow the status quo: Keep throwing the $34 million man out there every fifth turn in the starting rotation. Keep working between starts. Keep their fingers crossed that somehow, Happ halts and reverses his season-long plummet.

Exactly what alternatives exist?

Happ lasted just four-plus innings in the Yankees’ 6-4 loss to the A’s at Oakland Coliseum, and that he gave up only five runs served as a testament to the efforts of Chad Green, who relieved the veteran lefty with the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth and gave up just one run, on a two-out, infield single to Mark Canha. Green sure looks like a strong option to be a Yankees postseason starter, albeit an opener. Happ, whose ERA shot up to 5.58, sure doesn’t.

“I haven’t struggled like this in a while,” Happ said afterward. “But again, I’m doing everything I can every day to come in and try to figure this thing out. Try to support the rest of the guys. And I feel good. So I feel like I can make the adjustments and make the changes. That’s my hope.”

The hopeful notion that Happ found something in his previous start, a five-inning, two-run win over the rancid Orioles, blew up exactly seven batters into the game, when A’s designated hitter Khris Davis, who had gone deep once in his last 152 at-bats and had registered a golden sombrero Tuesday night with four strikeouts, smoked a chest-high, full-count fastball over the right field wall for a two-run, second-inning homer, erasing the 1-0 edge the Yankees had built in the top of the inning.

Throw in the two-run, third-inning blast by Marcus Semien to left field, and Happ increased his home runs allowed total to 31, the highest total of his career.

“We’re trying to do everything we can between starts to try to figure out sequencing, location, execution, delivery,” Happ said. “But they got the two today, and they had a guy on base each time. That makes it tough.”

If he could have navigated his way through, say, six innings and those four runs, Happ would have kept his teammates in the game more, and the Yankees could have spun this start against a tough ballclub, in their quirky ballpark, as progress. Alas, Happ opened the fifth inning with a Jurickson Profar double, Josh Phegley hit by pitch and Semien walk, and Aaron Boone had seen enough.

In an ideal pinstriped world, the Yankees would have seen enough of Happ by now and put him on ice for a while: Relegate him to long relief, invent an injury and deactivate him, anything. That would accomplish nothing on this club. Who would replace Happ in the starting rotation? A Quadruple-A type from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre? The top pitching prospect there, Deivi Garcia, will work out of the bullpen and could earn his way into the playoff mix.

Nope, with Luis Severino rehabilitating his season-long injuries in Tampa, and with CC Sabathia’s postseason status just as tenuous as Happ’s, the Yankees can’t really afford to shelve Happ and forget about him. The cost-benefit analysis highly favors the rewards of continuing to throw him out there.

“Obviously, we’ve just got to keep grinding away,” Boone said. “But the stuff is there enough for him to go out and continue for him to be successful. We’ve just got to continue to find a way with him, try and learn from things but really try and find, build on a lot of the positive things that are happening within an outing.”

“I think we can improve on his command and execution on his fastball,” Gary Sanchez, whom Happ shook off multiple times, said through an interpreter.

So much hope from all corners. They’ll stay optimistic, you know, until time runs out — which isn’t too far away.