Teixeira is struggling badly again

It was barely a week ago that Mark Teixeira was talking about his April slump as a thing of the past. Now there’s a May swoon to go with it that’s got him searching for answers.

Teixeira was 0-for-4 in the Yankees’ 5-3 loss to the Mets last night, striking out against three different Mets pitchers. He is in a 1-for-23 slide in his last six games since he doubled home a run in the second inning against the Red Sox on Monday.

“As good as I felt for about a two-, three-week stretch there, I feel the exact opposite right now,” Teixeira said.

His batting average, which was up to .224 at the start of this week after a dismal April in which he hit .136, is back down to .204.

“I feel terrible. I can’t get any worse right now,” Teixeira said after he struck out looking against Mike Pelfrey leading off the sixth, swinging against Jennry Mejia with two on in the seventh and swinging against Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez leading off the ninth.

“I took a lot of swings to get myself right in May. For the first couple weeks, it did pay off. Maybe now I need to take a step back, cut back on my lifting, cut back on all the extra swings.”

The Yankees stranded 13 runners last night and were 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Alex Rodriguez had two singles in five at-bats, but he and Teixeira each had only one at-bat with runners in scoring position.

They were not helped by Derek Jeter and Brett Gardner going a combined 0-for-9. “Yeah, for sure,” Gardner said of his 0-for-5 night hurting the offense. “Any time you’re hitting at the top of the lineup, you get four or five plate appearances and you don’t get on base with the guys that are hitting behind me . . . That’s my job, to get on base so that they can hit me in. And I didn’t do that tonight.”

Teixeira seemed to correct his mistakes with a torrid start to May. He was 21-for-62 (.339) to start the month, having done his usual yeoman work in the batting cage to bring himself back to a high level. But this week, everyone has noticed the drop-off.

“It just seems like he’s having a hard time staying back right now,” Joe Girardi said. “He’s out in front of some. He’s swinging and missing some so it looks like he’s not picking up the ball at times.”

The worst may have been the at-bat in the sixth, when Teixeira tried to be patient with Pelfrey and looked at three straight fastballs for strikes.

“You don’t usually see that happen with me,” he said. “I’m kind of caught in between trying to be patient and be aggressive. A week ago we were talking about that hot streak. Unfortunately, this last week has been bad.”