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The Yankees used the latest Derek Jeter milestone to push the Red Sox closer to a second straight dark October.
Jeter hit one of five Yankees homers to help the AL East leaders to a 6-4 victory last night over their fading blood rivals in front of 49,422 customers at the Stadium who had to suffer through heavy rains and lightning bolts across the first three innings.
Jeter’s fifth-inning blast to left not only tied the score, 4-4, it was his 250th career homer. Willie Mays and Jeter are the only players in history with 250 homers, 3,000 hits, 300 stolen bases and 1,200 RBIs.
“I always hear I don’t hit home runs,’’ said Jeter, who has 10 this season. “In my mind I am happy with it. For me, it’s a lot of home runs. I will take it.’’
Joining Jeter, who was the designated hitter for the second time in four games, in the muscle flexing show was switch-hitting Nick Swisher, who homered from both sides of the plate using bats delivered to him 90 minutes before the game, Curtis Granderson and Russell Martin. The five homers tied a season-high for the Yankees, who also did it against the Red Sox earlier this season on April 20 in Fenway Park.
The power barrage helped Phil Hughes post the victory. Hughes’ only mistake was an errant throw to second base in the third inning when the Red Sox scored four unearned runs to erase a 3-0 lead. Homers from Swisher in the first and back-to-back blasts by Granderson and Martin in the second provided the early lead.
“He was great except for that throw,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of Hughes (12-10), who bounced back from two miserable outings. He allowed seven hits, one walk and fanned four. “He threw more change-ups than he had in four or five starts combined.’’
As impressive as the home runs by the team that leads the majors in them were, Jayson Nix’s flare single to right in the sixth inning off a 0-2 slider away from right-hander Clayton Mortensen put the Yankees ahead, 5-4.
“I am mainly trying to see a pitch up there,’’ Nix said. “He had thrown a lot of pitches down to Russ [Martin] the at-bat before. It was kind of in the area I wanted it.’’
David Robertson held his breath a bit in the eighth when Dustin Pedroia, who hit a three-run homer off Hughes in the third, crushed a ball to center with Carl Crawford on second and one out and the Yankees leading, 6-4.
“I knew he hit it hard but I saw Curtis [Granderson] going for it and saw how high it was,’’ said Robertson, who took Crawford’s smash off his left foot. “I was behind in the count and had to throw him a strike. I just got lucky.’’
Rafael Soriano recorded the final three outs for his 30th save. The Yankees’ 11th victory in 16 games extended their AL East lead over the fading Red Sox to 13 1/2 games. The win pushed the Yankees lead over the Orioles, who started the night six back and tied with the Rays for second, to seven games.
As for Jeter’s latest milestone he said the ball which he traded for a signed bat and signed the fans’ jersey, will go next to all the other balls he has collected.
“He is an amazing player,’’ Girardi said. “Think about what he has done. He is 38 and has played 15 days in a row.’’
george.king@nypost.com