BOSTON — It has come to this for the injury- and slump-riddled New York Yankees: Johnny Damon is getting ready to play some first base.

In 12 major-league seasons, Damon has played only one inning at first. The last time he regularly roamed the position? Try Little League.

“As an outfielder, (my arm) is very below average,” said Damon before he snatched a mitt from his locker and took some grounders at Fenway Park last night under the watchful eye of one of the all-time greats at the position, Don Mattingly. “As a first baseman, it’s just below average.”

Damon was smiling as he spoke those condescending words, but the Yankees’ plight is no laughing matter this morning. New York manager Joe Torre is juggling his lineup yet again this season thanks to ill-timed injuries. The latest is the broken wrist suffered by Doug Mientkiewicz Saturday when he was involved in two dust-up plays, the second of which left him dazed after getting blindsided by Mike Lowell’s thigh in a tight play near the first-base bag.

Mientkiewicz is a valued reserve, playing only because Jason Giambi (partial tear of plantar fascia in left foot, out a minimum of three weeks) beat him to the disabled list. Josh Phelps, a three-year veteran with a good glove but little offensive resumé, started at first last night for the Yanks but he’s clearly not an everyday solution.

“We talked about not only taking ground balls at first base but fly balls in left and right field,” said Torre. “Johnny said ‘Fine,’ and that’s what he’s been doing. I think it could be an option, probably more so now with (Mientkiewicz) down. At this point in time with the people we have available to us, he can be an option. I don’t see another guy over him.”

The happy-go-lucky Damon seems to welcome the challenge.

“I’m okay to be thrown into the fire,” said Damon, who joined the long list of injured Yanks a few weeks ago with sore calves. “Right now I’m a DH/outfielder but I need to be ready to play first base, too. That’s fine with me with the current situation we’re in.”

That situation is somewhere close to desperation. The Yankees came into last night’s game 13½ games behind the Red Sox in the A.L. East, but that deficit is irrelevant right now. The Yanks need to get healthy, start hitting consistently, establish a dependable starting five (with or without Roger Clemens) and line up a bullpen that’s been ripped apart from overuse.

While catching Boston and winning the A.L. East for the 10th straight season appears to be farfetched, a rejuvenated Yankee team certainly can fight its way back into the race and be a contender for a wild card spot in the postseason. But can this broken-down bus fix itself?

“It is what it is, you know?” said Jorge Posada, one of the few Yankees living up to his career numbers at the plate. “It seems like every day is something new. We just have to rise above it. It’s going to take all of us to do it and we have to stay close together and find a way of getting the job done. It’s going to be like this all year so we have to find a way to get stronger.”

Posada, the New York catcher who leads the A.L. in hitting with a .362 average going into last night’s game, is one of several veteran leaders on a team whose strength is supposed to be its veteran leaders. But Damon, Giambi and Hideki Matsui have suffered injuries, Alex Rodriguez has cooled off after sizzling in April, and Bobby Abreu (.239, 2 homers) has grossly underachieved. Derek Jeter, with a .341 average, in the only Yankee regular to join Posada in hitting above .290.

Posada says it’s his job to help pull everyone along during a long season where players like A-Rod and Abreu are bound to catch fire.

“Everybody is pulling for each other,” he said. “We have to keep fighting. It’s not going to be easy. When you put yourself in a hole like this, you have to find a way of keeping things positive.”

kmcnamar@projo.com