BOSTON — “Let’s go,” Derek Jeter said calmly to Andruw Jones, and the two future Hall of Famers departed the Fenway Park visitors’ clubhouse late last night.
One walked gingerly toward the team bus, looking more like a retiree than an active ballplayer. And the other one was Andruw Jones.
The Yankees’ tense, 5-4 victory over the Red Sox last night, a win that kept them tied atop the American League East with Baltimore, came with a price — as does pretty much every Yankees victory nowadays, it seems. Jeter, their resurgent captain, departed in the middle of the eighth inning when he aggravated a bone bruise in his left ankle that he initially suffered earlier this month.
“You play or you don’t play,” a characteristically defiant Jeter said after the game. “I’m going to play.”
Said Joe Girardi: “Knowing Derek as well as we all do, he’s probably going to be in there [tonight].”
Girardi is normally quite good at ensuring that his veterans get their proper rest, but this is no normal time. Not with the Yankees fighting for their playoff lives, with 20 games to go and with the Orioles (who edged Tampa Bay, 3-2) refusing to back down.
Not with the veteran-heavy Yankees showing their age with an injury list long enough to keep head athletic trainer Steve Donohue far more alert than Mike Francesa.
With Mark Teixeira (left calf) already out of the lineup for a while, with Mariano Rivera (right knee) ancient history and with Andy Pettitte (left ankle) on his way back, the Yankees don’t want to go very long without their captain, who contributed a pair of singles and scored a run in last night’s effort.
From the way Jeter and Girardi spoke, they probably won’t have to go very long. He could be back even by tonight’s series finale. How much he can give the team, how close to 100 percent he’ll be, will be seen by his play on the field.
“You just hope that he’s OK,” said Curtis Granderson, who homered twice. “We’ll see how he feels [tonight]. Hopefully he’ll get a chance to be in there sooner than later.”
This felt like an immense game; a loss would have put the Yankees in second place for the first time since June 10. Rookie David Phelps, who had looked overwhelmed lately, hung around for 5 2/3 innings and allowed just one run. Six relievers combined to give up three runs, the last one coming when Jarrod Saltalamacchia smoked a leadoff homer off closer Rafael Soriano in the ninth inning.
Last night marked just the fourth time in 18 games that a Yankees starting pitcher picked up a win. In the interim, Yankees starting pitchers blew leads in six games that turned into losses. The culprits? CC Sabathia three times and Freddy Garcia, Phil Hughes and Hiroki Kuroda once each. Kuroda blew leads also in his Sept. 5 victory at Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, Garcia twice received early advantages yet didn’t pitch the minimum five innings required for the victory.
Even with Jeter not lasting the entire game, the thrill of victory dominated the Yankees’ clubhouse. That’s the way it is in this scenario. You survive and advance.
“It’s playoff baseball,” Girardi said.
The Yankees now have won four of their last seven games, which constitutes a good run for them nowadays. Girardi has occasionally displayed signs of strain, but his players have largely stayed cool. They’ve followed their last four losses with wins.
It appears that many of their players, especially Jeter, agree with comments Pettitte made before the game.
“Obviously you know we had a big lead and that lead is gone, but this is what it’s all about,” Pettitte said. “You want to embrace this. You want to enjoy this. If you’re scared of this situation, you’re not going to be very successful.
“It’s exciting. It’s fun. Do you want to fail? No. But you can’t be scared, that’s for sure.”
Fast-forward to after the game, when Jeter declared, “I am playing [tonight].” The training staff and Girardi will make that decision. The bad news for the Yankees is Jeter’s pain presents one more hurdle. Their good news is that their captain will embrace the challenge.
kdavidoff@nypost.com