DOUBLING UP: Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson follows through on his fourth-inning home run last night, the first of two blasts he would hit in the Bombers’ 5-4 victory against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. (
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BOSTON — Every day delivers a referendum on the Yankees’ chances of winning the AL East. They lose and it can’t be done. A victory provides hope even among the legions of self-loathing Yankee fans.
Last night at Fenway Park, the Yankees’ meter cruised the elevator across nine exhausting innings.
On the upside, Curtis Granderson hit two homers and David Phelps supplied a solid start to a 5-4 victory over the Red Sox that was witnessed by 37,230.
On the downside, Derek Jeter left the game in the eighth inning with a bone bruise in his left ankle that started barking last week against Tampa Bay.
“I am playing, it’s not an issue,’’ Jeter said about tonight’s game. “You play or you don’t play. I am going to play.’’
The win, which Jeter contributed two hits to that put him one hit shy of tying Willie Mays for 10th place on the all-time hit list with 3,282, allowed the Yankees to remain tied for first in the AL East with the Orioles, who beat the Rays, 3-2.
Each team has 20 games remaining, and none against each other.
“It’s playoff baseball, you are playing in the playoffs right now,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of the ultra-tight race. “It’s a good test for us.’’
Red Sox outfielder Cody Ross, manager Bobby Valentine and third base coach Jerry Royster were ejected at the end of the eighth by plate ump Alfonso Marquez after Ross was called out on a 3-2 pitch from Rafael Soriano to end the inning with James Loney on second base.
Soriano replaced David Robertson with two outs in the eighth, gave up a homer to Jarrod Saltalamacchia in the ninth and posted his 37th save.
Granderson homered in the fourth and the seventh innings, his 36th and 37th, respectively, and Phelps worked into the sixth to lead the Yankees to their second victory in three games.
Robinson Cano added a two-run homer, his 30th, in the fourth and Nick Swisher had three hits.
“You can count on this going down to the [end],’’ said Alex Rodriguez, whose soft single to center preceded Cano’s opposite-field homer over the Green Monster. “We have to play stellar baseball to the end.’’
One area that needs to be better is hitting with runners in scoring position. A night after going 1-for-12 in the clutch during a 4-3 loss, the Yankees were hitless in 13 at-bats last night.
Phelps worked into the sixth and left with a runner on first and two outs. Clay Rapada replaced him and watched James Loney’s liner find Swisher’s glove at first base for the final out.
Jacoby Ellsbury, Tuesday night’s hero, opened the sixth with a single but was erased on the front end of a 4-3 double play started by Pedro Ciriaco’s grounder up the middle handled by Cano.
In 5 2/3 innings Phelps allowed a run, five hits, walked one and struck out five. It was Phelps’ first win since Aug. 13. He is 4-4 overall and 2-2 in nine starts.
His best moment surfaced in the fourth after the Yankees staked him to a 3-0 cushion in the top of the frame.
“It was huge,’’ Phelps said of the lead. “They come back with a leadoff triple [by Saltalamacchia], and I told myself I am going to do everything I can not to let them score.’’
Three batters later, Saltalamacchia was still 90 feet away from home plate.
Twenty games to go means a lot of scoreboard watching no matter how much the Yankees may deny doing the September tradition.
“We need to worry about ourselves, we can’t worry about others,’’ Girardi said.
Last night, the worrying was on Jeter’s ankle and what it means tonight.
george.king@nypost.com