THE ONLY RACE IS TO EXITS

Yankee fans abandon ship

If a quest for a division title crashes and burns in the Bronx but nobody is there to witness the damage, does it really count in the standings? Unfortunately for the Yankees, that would be a resounding yes.

OK, there were a few thousand diehard souls who stayed until the end of Saturday’s doubleheader at the Stadium, which included a four and a half-hour first game and a rain delay in the nightcap.

But I can’t ever remember seeing the place so empty, especially for a crucial pennant-race game. In fact, by the sixth inning of the nightcap, or about 9 p.m., the Stadium was all but deserted.

It made for a weird vibe, all the more so because many still in attendance were Toronto fans, chanting either for the Blue Jays or for Josh Donaldson as MVP — and shouting down the occasional protests by the small pockets of Yankee fans.

Imagine that: a hostile takeover in the stands, as well as on the field. It’s happened plenty over the years, only it’s always Yankee fans making their presence felt in places like Baltimore, Tampa/St. Petersburg, and, yes, Toronto.

It just doesn’t happen here. But then, there’s a new sheriff in the AL East, it appears, after the Blue Jays swept the Yankees in the doubleheader to raise their lead in the division to 4½ games.

They’re the highest-scoring team in the majors, and they’ve bludgeoned Yankees’ pitching for 30 runs in winning three straight games so far in this series, leaving Joe Girardi to state the obvious after the doubleheader: “We’ve gotta pitch better.’’ In truth, at this stage of the season their pitching may not be good enough against the Blue Jays.

All of which made for a long, long day and night on Saturday, but it was still rather startling to see how few Yankee fans remained from a large, boisterous crowd of 46,278 that made for a lively pennant-race atmosphere in Saturday’s opener.

Clearly a 9-5 loss in 11 innings, one in which Joe Girardi used his big guns in the bullpen because he desperately wanted the win, created a sense the Yankees were in trouble, and the feeling escalated quickly when the Jays ran up six runs in the second inning to knock out Ivan Nova.

The Yankees didn’t go easily, as Brett Gardner hit a pair of threerun home runs, but they couldn’t shut down the Jays, and lost 10-7.

So while Masahiro Tanaka goes to the mound on Sunday hoping to salvage the final game of this four-game series, and the Yankees have three more with the Jays in Toronto coming up, suddenly this race does feel like it’s over.

Let’s face it, it already had a feel of inevitability, as the Blue Jays have been playing at a ridiculously high level since trade-deadline deals for David Price, Troy Tulowitzki, and others.

Though it should be noted the Jays may have taken a major hit on Saturday when Tulowitzki left Game 1 after colliding with center fielder Kevin Pillar. They announced an MRI showed a crack in the shortstop’s left shoulder blade, and said he’ll be monitored for a week to determine a return date.

Clearly that doesn’t sound encouraging, but Tulowitzki hasn’t been hitting much since the trade, and it’s obvious the Jays’ lineup has plenty of pop without him.

In fact, the Yankees took a much bigger hit with Thursday’s news that Mark Teixeira would be lost for the season with a leg fracture. Between that and Nate Eovaldi’s elbow injury, there was already a growing sense of gloom and doom when this series began.

Throw in the pounding that Luis Severino took on Friday night, just when he was emerging as the great new hope in the Bronx, and Michael Pineda’s inability to keep the ball in the ballpark against the Jays in Saturday’s opener, and suddenly everything seems to be going wrong for the Yankees.

After showing so much promise early in the season, Pineda has become a puzzle to the Yankees — now 10-8 with a 4.25 ERA, compared to 5-0 with a 2.72 ERA after his 16-strikeout performance against the Orioles back in May.

Yes, in big-picture terms, the Yankees suddenly have major questions about their starting rotation. Should they earn the wildcard berth and be faced with a one-game playoff, obviously Tanaka would get that start — assuming they don’t need to pitch him in the final days of the season in pursuit of the division title.

That’s still to be determined, but the wild-card seems more realistic after Saturday’s doubleheader sweep — set up by a gutwrenching loss in Game 1.

In the clubhouse afterward the Yankees did their best to sound confident.

“We’re going to overcome this,’’ Carlos Beltran said. “We still have four games with (the Blue Jays).’’

By late Saturday night that didn’t sound like such good news. Apparently no one seemed to know it more than Yankee fans.