MOOSIC, Pa. — This is a nice place to visit — but Derek Jeter has lived here long enough: three Triple-A rehab games with the Yankees’ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders affiliate are sufficient.
Before he made three plays in the field, including a tag-out on a fielder’s choice, Jeter said he was ready to head back to The Bronx “as soon as possible.”
After his night — in front of a sold-out crowd — ended following five innings and an 0-for-2 showing in which he reached on an error and a walk and scored from second on a single, his feelings were reinforced.
“Felt all right, no problems at all,” said Jeter, who added he has pleaded his case to general manager Brian Cashman to no avail.
“There’s been no issues whatsoever.
“Everything you do in a game, I’ve already done. If there was something I had to do, trust me, I’d do it.”
Before the Yankees began their game — ironically on Derek Jeter Bobblehead Night, manager Joe Girardi left open the possibility Jeter could return this weekend.
“There is always a chance,” Girardi said. “Let’s see how he does the next three or four days.”
Jeter, who started at shortstop, will be off today when Scranton/Wilkes-Barre plays at noon. He expects to be back at shortstop tomorrow “unless something changes.” He repeatedly stressed his desire to get back to the bigs.
“I’m trying to push to get there today, but I don’t think I can make it,” Jeter said, deadpan, before the game. “So it’s whenever they say.
… I’d like to be there now, but I’m not, so as soon as I’m allowed to get up there, I’ll get up there.
“I get it. It’s not like I don’t understand why I’m here. I know I have to play some games, so just make the most of it while I’m here and hopefully get out of here soon.”
After playing five innings for a second time, Jeter was asked if he wanted to play a full game.
“Sure,” he said. “A full game in New York.”
After charging a chopper and throwing out the first runner, Jeter reached on a shortstop throwing error in the bottom of the first. He was involved in a fielder’s choice tag in the third.
“Write that I was moving all over the place,” Jeter joked.
Jeter, who has picked up the nightly tab for the RailRiders’ postgame food, has every confidence his surgically repaired left ankle — which he broke during the ALCS and before suffering a small-crack setback during spring training — is ready. After a full rehab in Florida, he has gone 1-for-6 with four walks in his three Triple-A games. How he felt is what mattered.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” he said. “Broke your ankle, some days it’s going to be stiff. But that goes away. From what I understand, I’m going to have days like that forever.”
Jeter admitted some apprehension the first time he ran after the second break was discovered.
“Because before I found out it was broken the second time, every time I ran I would feel it,” he said. “I didn’t say anything, but I would feel it. So after we found out it was broke, then initially when I started running again I was more curious than anything, but then a little scared to see how it would feel.”
—Additional reporting by George A. King III
fred.kerber@nypost.com