It is just the way life is for Derek Jeter. The moment you are about to question him, fate intervenes, giving him a mulligan, which, of course, he uses to his fullest advantage.

With Jeter suddenly throwing with Danny Kanell-like accuracy, the last thing he needed to do was start bumbling groundballs. But it was Jeter’s error with no out and a man on first in the third inning that led to the Orioles first run in the Yankees’ 7-6 win last night at the Stadium.

An out later with two men on, Miguel Tejada hit a lined rocket. Tejada made one mistake – he gave Jeter a chance to redeem himself. Jeter, being Jeter, took a small step to his left and leaped into the air, extending his left arm back and high to snare the clothesline shot.

After descending back to earth, Jeter smoothly back-handed a flip to Robinson Cano, who covered second for the inning-ending double play. Even with redemption in his back pocket, Jeter just ran expressionless back to dugout.

“It was by me,” Jeter said. “It was fortunate, because the one before I don’t think touched any part of me.”

What is of concern to Yankee fans, though, is not the occasional flub in the field when Jeter gets an uneven bounce on a potential double-play ball; it is Jeter’s suddenly scatter-gun throws.

Last night, Jeter avoided an error, but he again had trouble finding first base. Leading off the sixth, Melvin Mora hit a routine grounder to Jeter.

Jeter, though, misfired, throwing the ball up the line. Tino Martinez was able to snare it and tag Mora going by to save his buddy some more embarrassment.

While Martinez’ back seemed fine after the play, three of Jeter’s bad tosses basically threw out Jason Giambi’s back this week. Giambi joked about Jeter’s bad throws, but his pain is real.

Is Jeter worried about his right arm?

“No,” said Jeter, who added he is uninjured. “I’m sure it won’t be the last [bad throw.]”

An unfettered Joe Torre agreed with Jeter. With Jeter’s season here, fall, who is going to argue?