Ellsbury’s struggles continue to mount

Jacoby Ellsbury’s recent slide continued Sunday with another hitless afternoon in the Yankees 50 win over Toronto at the Stadium.

The center fielder went 0for4 with a strikeout, which followed an ugly Saturday in which he didn’t get a hit in 10 atbats. Overall, the $153 million leadoff hitter is in a 1for25 funk.

“He’s just not squaring the ball up,” said Joe Girardi, who blamed some of Ellsbury’s issues Sunday on facing R.A. Dickey. “It’s hard to say against a knuckleballer. We need to get him going.”

And Ellsbury’s struggles extend beyond facing Dickey. His OPS has fallen to .666 and he hasn’t had an extrabase hit since a home run on Aug. 30.

Rarely seen in the clubhouse, he made a brief appearance after Saturday’s sweep and said only that the Yankees had to “come out with energy” Sunday.

➤ CC Sabathia will make his second start Monday since returning from the knee discomfort that side lined him for two weeks and said he’s had no issues with his betweenstart routine.

“Everything feels good with the brace,” Sabathia said. “Just want to keep going.”

If all goes well and Girardi doesn’t need to use Adam Warren out of the bullpen, the righthander will start on Tuesday.

➤ Rob Refsnyder created a stir when he was called up from the minors in July to play second base against lefthanded pitchers, but he hasn’t seen the field since being recalled again.

“I’m going with the guys that have gotten us here,” Girardi said. “The question is probably going to be around Stephen Drew a little bit. He was extremely hot before this week and I kind of rode him … Now he’s had a tough week.”

➤ Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos said shortstop Troy Tulowitzki might be back for the playoffs after suffering a small crack in his left scapular and bruised upper back muscles when he collided with center fielder Kevin Pillar in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader.

Additional reporting by Fred Kerber