MLB

Crucial error bumps Yankees lead over Orioles to three

To Derek Jeter, every game on the schedule is big. He understands the Yankees play 162 Game 7s, so it’s hard to add more significance to any one over another.

Instead, Jeter focuses on the bigger picture.

“We need to play well, put together a stretch where we play well,’’ Jeter said following a 4-3, grind-it-out victory over the Orioles yesterday that was aided by shortstop J.J. Hardy’s fielding error in the Yankees’ four-run seventh inning. “If we win games, we’ll be fine.’’

Can the Yankees reverse the current trend of winning four of 11 games? Who knows? But yesterday’s victory stretched their AL East lead over the Orioles to three games — after it appeared on the way to be sliced to one length through the first six innings.

The win also allowed the Yankees to stay 4 1⁄2 games ahead of the third-place Rays, who beat the Blue Jays yesterday, 5-4.

“If we lost today we were only going to be up one. It’s huge,’’ ineffective starter David Phelps said of the victory, witnessed by 46,122 sun-splashed Yankee Stadium customers.

Phelps put the Yankees in a 3-0 ditch through four innings and left in the fifth with the home team trailing 3-1, thanks to Robinson Cano’s opposite-field, two-out homer to left in fourth off lefty Wei-Yin Chen.

BOX SCORE

Recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre earlier in the day, Eduardo Nunez delivered a broken-bat, two-out RBI single in the seventh that pulled the Yankees to within a run.

Pedro Strop replaced Chen and walked Ichiro Suzuki to load the bases for Jeter.

Strop put Jeter in a 0-2 hole before walking him to force home Jayson Nix, tying the score. Hardy then booted Nick Swisher’s grounder that allowed the Yankees to cop a 4-3 lead.

With the count full, two outs and the bases loaded, the runners were on the move when Swisher hit the ball to Hardy.

“I was running, I figured that ball would be difficult because it had some English on it,’’ Swisher said.

After Phelps walked six, hit a batter, gave up three runs and three hits in 4  2⁄3 innings, Cody Eppley, Boone Logan, David Robertson and Rafael Soriano combined for 4  1⁄3 innings of scoreless relief.

Soriano recorded the final three outs for his 35th save.

“It’s nice to win. This is the team we’re going to have to beat if we want to get where we want to be,’’ said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who removed center fielder and leading home run-hitter Curtis Granderson after the second inning because of a hamstring problem the club doesn’t believe is serious.

Amped up about returning to the big leagues, Nunez admitted his approach in his first two at-bats — fly balls to left and center — wasn’t correct.

“The first couple of at-bats I got a couple of pitches to hit,’’ Nunez said. “I told myself, ‘Don’t try to do too much.’ ”

Speaking before the victory, general manager Brian Cashman spoke confidently of his struggling club and its recent stretch of poor play.

“Not worried at all,’’ Cashman said. “We are up against great competition and we intend to keep our lead and we intend to win our division. We certainly have our hands full, but it’s all about grinding it and not letting yesterday’s stuff affect you today.”

“It’s a great win for us,” Swisher said. “Hopefully it gets us out of this little thing.”

george.king@nypost.com