Garcia also battered by Blue Jays in Yankees loss

TORONTO -- The reclamation projects in the Yankees' rotation were the feel-good hit of the first three months of the season. Now, however, it seems as if "Smoke and Mirrors" was just that, and the hiss that is dancing across summer lawns in the Yankees' Universe is the air leaving the party balloon.

When Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia signed minor-league contracts before spring training, the expectations for the veteran right-handers were low. So when they not only made the rotation but contributed heavily, people looked at their signings and applauded.

Now, in the first two games after the All-Star break, Colon and Garcia don't look so good.

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One night after Colon couldn't make it out of the first inning, Garcia was tagged with a 7-1 loss to the Blue Jays in front of 33,525 at Rogers Centre.

No wonder the Yankees dispatched scout Jay Darnell to Denver to watch the Rockies' very available righty Ubaldo Jimenez pitch Thursday night.

Of course, manager Joe Girardi isn't acting as if the sky is falling on the veteran hurlers, even if signs point that way.

"If every time a starter went out and didn't have such a good start, you lost confidence in him you would run out of starters real quick," Girardi said.

Thanks to a misbehaving splitter and an inability to get into a rhythm with catcher Russell Martin -- who took extra steps to make sure Blue Jays runners on second weren't stealing his signs, like Martin said they did Thursday -- Garcia (7-7) didn't have a perfect frame.

In five innings, he allowed six runs (five earned), seven hits and walked four (one intentional).

"My split is my best pitch and if I don't have it, I get in trouble," said Garcia, who gave up a run in the first, two in the fourth and three (two earned) in the fifth.

The Yankees' second straight loss didn't cost them ground in the AL East because the first-place Red Sox lost to the Rays. Boston remains 1½ games in front.

Even if Garcia had pitched better, it wouldn't have mattered. After a shaky first two innings Brandon Morrow (6-4) was terrific. Armed with a 97-mph fastball and a 87-mph breaking ball, the right-hander allowed a run and four hits in 6 2/3 innings.

The initial two Yankees hitters in the first and second innings reached base, but it only resulted in one run. After Eduardo Nunez's RBI single in the second tied the score, 1-1, Morrow retired the next 13 Yankees.

"We had the right part of the lineup up and we had a couple of opportunities that we didn't take advantage of," said Girardi, who watched Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano -- his first four hitters -- go a combined 0-for-15 and strike out six times.

The Yankees went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and didn't have a runner get past first base from the third through the eighth innings.

In addition to not pitching or hitting, the Yankees committed two errors after making three Thursday night in a 16-7 loss.

"We haven't made plays and that hurts you," Girardi said of throwing errors by Granderson and Martin. "You can't give them extra outs, because they make you pay. Sometimes you get away with it, but not too often."

Sometimes you sign veteran pitchers whose body parts light up an MRI tube and it works. That's the way it played for the Yankees across the season's first three months.

Now, with the season heading for crunch time and the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline approaching, the Yankees have to wonder if "Smoke and Mirrors" need to turn the stage over to someone with stronger legs.

george.king@nypost.com