Bird’s bat remains ice cold

When Greg Bird stepped into the batter’s box Monday night against the Blue Jays he knew his production during the first 18 games of the season wasn’t close to what was expected of him and what the left-handed hitting first baseman had expected of himself.

Make that 19 after Bird went hitless in four at-bats during a 7-1 loss to the Blue Jays. And since Bird is hitting a woeful .100 (6-for-60) manager Joe Girardi was asked if the Yankees were thinking about sending him to the minors.

“We haven’t talked about that, we still really believe in this kid,’’ Girardi said of the first baseman , who struck out looking, grounded into a double play, lofted a stress-free fly to center and reached on an error. “It’s frustrating for him and our job is to get him through this.”

Bird understands the big leagues are a performance-based gig and wise enough to know that a corner infielder batting .100 isn’t performing well.

“I know what I am capable of and those guys know, too,’’ Bird said. “It’s frustrating but you got to deal with it.’’

Jacoby Ellsbury came away from crashing into the center-field wall in the sixth inning with a sore left elbow that could keep him out of the lineup Tuesday night.

“It’s sore, see how it feels [Tuesday],’’ said Ellsbury, who made a running catch at the wall on Ryan Goins’ fly with runners on second and third. “It’s someplace in the elbow.’’

Not wanting to get caught short in the bullpen after using five relievers Sunday in a 7-4 loss to the Orioles in 11 innings, the Yankees called up Luis Cessa from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Monday. Right-hander

Bryan Mitchell, who threw 36 pitches and played first base Sunday, was sent down to make room on the roster. Cessa worked 3 ¹/3 innings against Toronto and allowed two runs and four hits.

Gary Sanchez is scheduled to begin a minor league rehab assignment Tuesday night for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and could come off the DL in time for Friday’s game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.