Yankees 5

Indians 3

It was Orlando Hernandez vs. Cleveland last night, and outside forces made it sound every bit as dire as Game 4 of the 1998 ALCS.

Outside the Yankee clubhouse, the sky was falling after the worst loss in franchise history Tuesday night, a 22-0 rout by the Indians. There was mounting fear of a reverse of 1978 with Boston.

George Steinbrenner arrived 4½ hours before the first pitch, issued a statement and ordered the scoreboards to read “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” during batting practice – which he watched like a hawk from the owner’s box.

So on what felt like a must-win night, El Duque, a hero of championships past, fittingly tossed one-run, three-hit ball over seven frames during the Yankees’ 5-3 victory.

“Obviously [Tuesday’s] game adds a little bit of pressure, but I tried not to look at the scoreboard [Tuesday] night because I didn’t want to be scared,” El Duque joked.

Homers by Jorge Posada, John Olerud and Miguel Cairo staked the Yanks to a 4-1 advantage. They survived Tom Gordon’s eighth-inning, two-run meltdown that closed the lead to one thanks to Derek Jeter’s RBI single in the eighth and Mariano Rivera’s four-out save – his 46th in 49 chances.

“It was enormously important,” Joe Torre admitted. “In this game, you have to prove something to yourself every day.

“To have Duque pick us up was reminiscent of 1998.”

A day after the Yankees’ AL East lead was shaved to 3½ games with a historic drubbing, order was restored. Boston won again, but the Yanks (82-50) kept the Sox at bay – barely.

“I don’t like to talk just when we win,” Steinbrenner said after exiting the ballpark. “I don’t mean to be rude.

“Just savor the victory.”

El Duque (6-0) was at his best after allowing a first-inning run. In the third, he fielded a slow chopper by Coco Crisp and tried to tag him on the baseline, but Crisp evaded him with the footwork of a boxer. Crisp was ruled out for running out of the basepaths. Duque first put his hands out and then folded his arms, part in humor, part in bravado.

“There’s only one way to first base. I got there first and had to wait for him,” Duque quipped.

The outside view was calamitous heading into the game, but the Yankees simply seemed mildly concerned. Late Tuesday, Posada spoke of everybody looking in the mirror. He backed up his talk with a go-ahead two-run homer into the home bullpen in the fourth off C.C. Sabathia.

Torre praised Posada for “being there for everybody to hook on to.”

With two outs in the fourth, Olerud’s solo shot gave the Yanks a 3-1 edge. Cairo greeted reliever David Riske with a solo shot in the seventh.

“I thought our intensity was pretty good today,” said Jeter, who was 3-for-4 and said the intensity needed to be raised before the game. “El Duque set the tone . . .

“We needed to win, obviously. You go through periods of the season, whether it’s in April or in September, where you need to win. And today was definitely a game we needed to win.”

The Yanks were victorious for the ninth time in Hernandez’s 10 starts since his remarkable rebound from 2003 shoulder surgery.

In 1998, with the Yanks trailing Cleveland two games to one in the ALCS, El Duque hurled seven shutout innings on the road in his postseason debut for a 4-0 victory. The Bombers swept the rest of the postseason.

Torre rightfully observed this game wasn’t as big, but said, “No question he loves the opportunity to stand tall.”