New York left fielder Johnny Damon tried his best, but was unable to hold on to a ball hit by Boston’s Kevin Youkilis that landed atop the wall for a triple.

AP / Julie Jacobson

NEW YORK — Earl Weaver, who knew something about managing a baseball team, once gave his thoughts on holding meetings during tough times.

“If you have a team meeting and then you lose again,” asked Weaver rhetocially, “what do you do next?”

What, indeed, Joe Girardi?

Girardi closed the Yankee clubhouse for more than a half-hour Thursday night in the wake of his club’s shutout loss to the Red Sox. He spoke, some coaches spoke and Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon spoke.

Then, fulfilling Weaver’s worst-case scenario, the Yankees lost again yesterday to the Red Sox, 6-4.

They might not have looked as lifeless or as flat. They might have, with some help from third-base umpire Wally Bell’s nearsightedness, brought the potential tying run to the plate against Jonathan Papelbon.

But they still lost. Until Bell interceded, they still had just three hits after the first inning — all of them singles. And they still fell farther back in the American League East.

“I’m frustrated after every loss,” said Girardi, when asked about whether his demeanor had changed since the night before. “My mood doesn’t change a whole lot.”

Girardi liked the effort better yesterday. The Yankees didn’t mail in as many at-bats and they forced Josh Beckett to make almost as many pitches in six innings as Jon Lester did in nine innings in the series opener.

“But it’s another loss,” said Girardi, “and we need to win games.”

In the first inning, the Yankees looked like they had bought into Girardi’s tactics from the night before.

Darrell Rasner bailed himself out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the top of the first without the Red Sox scoring. Then, in the bottom of the inning, Alex Rodriguez stroked a big two-run double and Jason Giambi added a sacrifice fly.

The Yankees led, 3-0, against Beckett and Yankee Stadium was rocking. In the dugout, Girardi must have been thinking: Why didn’t I think of this earlier.

But it was downhill after that. The Sox erased the lead with three runs in the third, then used a Mike Lowell three-run homer in the sixth to take command of the game. The Yankees, meanwhile, didn’t score another run until garbage time in the ninth.

In the Yankee clubhouse, Damon spoke about the need to “play the game the right way. You’ve got to go out and play with passion.”

And Damon, true to his word and his reputation, did. In a truly bizarre play in the third, Damon collided with the left-field wall in tracking down a belt from Kevin Youkilis and the collision was so hard, the ball was jarred loose from the glove and left to straddle the padding on the top of the fence.

It remained there for a few seconds before dropping onto the warning track as Youkilis motored into third. Unable to lift his shoulder above his waist after making the throw back into the infield, Damon came out of the game, but not before apologizing to Rasner for being unable to hold onto the ball.

“I think the team responded well,” said Damon when asked how the message from the night before carried over. “We had better at-bats today. Guys were able to grind out their at-bats. We know we have a very good team here. We just need to win some more games. But I think the team responded well.”

But attitude and effort only count for so much, and ultimately, a team’s record and performance tell the story. And it’s there that the Yankees are in trouble. They can have Jeter and Damon demanding accountability and setting the tone, but those things won’t help them make up games in the standings.

“It’s definitely a letdown that we didn’t win,” acknowledged Damon, “especially against a team we’re trying to chase. Their lead is growing on us and we’ve got enough of a battle on our hands going up against two teams (the Red Sox and Rays).”

The Yankees are already without Hideki Matsui, and from the looks of Damon’s shoulder yesterday, may soon be down a second outfielder for a stretch.

They have the benefit of having arguably their two best starters — Mike Mussina and Joba Chamberlain — going this afternoon and tomorrow. But even if the Yanks win both, they’ll be as far behind the Red Sox as they were when the series started and there are no guarantees that they won’t fall farther behind the streaking Rays.

They’ve tried meetings already. Yesterday, that didn’t work. And now Earl Weaver isn’t the only one wondering: What do you do next?

smcadam@projo.com