There was friction between Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez yesterday, but it had nothing to do with the supposed feud that exists between the two brightest stars in the Yankees’ universe. The two came together – literally – at third base when Jeter bumped into Rodriguez while pursuing a pop-up in the sixth inning of the Yankees’ 12-2 loss to the Orioles. The contact produced an error on the play.

“Oh, that’s just evidence why they don’t get along, right,” said Joe Torre, tongue firmly planted in his cheek. “They’re trying to catch the same fly ball.”

With two out in the top of the six, and the Yanks trailing by eight runs, Jeter sprang to his right after Jay Gibbons’ pop towards third, and appeared to call for the ball all the way. But Rodriguez, who normally cedes such plays to his shortstop, was camped under the ball. Jeter ran into Rodriguez and the ball bounced off A-Rod’s glove.

“Just a goofy play, that’s all,” said Rodriguez. “He called it, I called it. We didn’t hear each other.”

Had there been a catch on the play, the inning would have ended. Instead, the next batter, Fernando Tatis, cracked a home run into the right field seats and the Orioles’ lead fattened to double digits.

Rodriguez, booed on the play, had been charged with what would have been his 22nd error of the season on the dropped pop-up. But after watching a video replay, official scorer Howie Karpin ruled that Jeter interfered with Rodriguez and the error belonged to the captain. Jeter was charged with his 10th error because he bent Rodriguez’s mitt closed.

“What happened? It was dropped,” Jeter said. “I was calling it; I guess he didn’t hear me. I thought he had it. He said to me, ‘Do you have it?’ I said, ‘You got it?’ I thought he was playing around, so I started running off the field, because I didn’t touch it.”

Jeter said he didn’t see a replay.

“Why, is there something I should see?” Jeter asked. “I don’t know how big you can make this story. It’s a pop-up that wasn’t caught. That’s about it.”