Starting pitcher Ted Lilly was charged with five runs (four earned) in 3 2/3 innings, giving up eight hits and walking one en route to his first road loss of the season. The rookie southpaw is now 3-2.

"He was good early, and I don't want to say he lost it, but he made some bad pitches," said Yankees manager Joe Torre. "He got ahead in a lot of counts 0-2, then let a lot of hitters off the hook. And that is inexperience, it something we will have to deal with and be patient with."

Cliff Floyd drove the first run home with a sacrifice fly, scoring Luis Castillo. Mike Lowell followed that up with an RBI single, later scoring on Kevin Millar's RBI double as the Marlins took a 3-0 lead in the third.

After Mike Redmond reached on Derek Jeter's second error of the night to lead off the fourth, Alex Gonzalez hit the first of his two home runs on the night, giving Florida a five-run lead with no outs in the fourth. Lilly gave up three more singles, prompting Torre to pull the young left-hander from the game in favor of Ramiro Mendoza, who pitched the Yankees out of the inning.

Given a comfortable lead, Marlins starter Chuck Smith eased through the Yankees' lineup, scattering nine hits over seven innings, but never encountering any serious trouble. Smith struck out seven batters, walking none as he evened his record to 5-5.

"He kept the ball down and threw the ball well," Torre said. "The fact that he had a big lead helped him go after people quite a bit. But he threw strikes and to me that is the secret in pitching."

"He's got pretty good control," Jeter said. "He spots his fastball and mixes in some off-speed pitches. Overall I thought we swung the bats well. You just tip your hat to him today."

The Marlins added to their lead in the sixth, as Gonzalez took the first pitch he saw from Mendoza over the wall in left field for his second homer of the game, his sixth of the season. Gonzalez and Castillo each went 3-for-4 on the night, scoring five of Florida's runs and driving in four.

New York avoided the shutout in the eighth, as Shane Spencer hit a two-out RBI single to score Paul O'Neill to put the Yankees on the scoreboard, cutting the score to 6-1.

It wouldn't stay that way for long, as the Marlins tagged reliever Jay Witasick for five more runs, highlighted by Floyd's 22nd home run of the year, a three-run shot that put the game away at 11-1. With the homer, Floyd tied his career-high for longballs in a season, as he hit 22 in 1998 and 2000.

The Yankees scratched out 11 hits, but couldn't come through in the clutch, stranding eight runners on base. New York's best scoring opportunity came in the seventh inning, when singles by Scott Brosius, Alfonso Soriano and Jorge Posada loaded the bases with one out for Jeter. But the Yankees' shortstop grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, ending the inning.

"We had double digit hits and that was the best we have done in the last couple games," Torre said. "We were swinging the bats better, we just couldn't produce any runners."

Jeter was 0-for-4 on the night, committing two of the Yankees' three errors.

"We lost, regardless of the errors you make, we didn't score runs," said Jeter. "They came out and they played well, they beat us. Those guys can hit, and every mistake we made, they crushed it. You make mistakes, you're human. You try to be as flawless as you can, but sometimes when this happens. There is no choice -- I'll play tomorrow. It's not football when you have a week off.

The crowd of 44,313 was the largest at a Marlins home game in three years, when Mark McGwire was chasing the single-season home run record with the Cardinals in Sept. 1998.

The loss, combined with Boston's 3-1 win over the Mets, cut New York's lead in the AL East to a half-game over the Red Sox. Florida has outscored New York 20-4 in the first two games of the series. The Yankees send All-Star starter Roger Clemens to the mound on Saturday as Ryan Dempster and the Marlins go for the three-game sweep.

"Hopefully we have had enough," Torre said. "We need a well-pitched ballgame and all of a sudden you look like a different team. We certainly don't look like the same team that won the last 10 out of 11."