BOSTON – The script called for Roger Clemens to lead the pitching staff out of disrepair and for the rest of the team to fall into place. It was scheduled to happen tonight in Chicago against the White Sox.

Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez beat The Rocket to it by one night, one city, against a different color of Sox.

Looking like the man who won so many New York hearts with so many ground balls and such a peaceful mound presence, Hernandez broke from a personal slump and spared the Yankees the embarrassment of suffering a three-game sweep at Fenway Park.

El Duque allowed two hits – a Reggie Jefferson line single to right with one out in the fifth that eluded the reach of diving second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, and a Nomar Garciaparra triple to the triangle in center field – and one run in eight breezy innings.

The 3-1 verdict over the Red Sox was only the Yankees’ third win in 11 games.

Of the many Yankees’ needs that have cropped up – and there have been many during this sluggish period – count getting El Duque and Clemens to return to their disparate ways of dominating baseball games as the two most important.

A pack of hitters getting hot at once can break a slump, too, but it’s not as easy on the nerves as tidy pitching performances. Given the choice of the preferable way to break a slump, Joe Torre didn’t hesitate.

“Pitching,” Torre said. “Pitching. You can’t score enough runs if you can’t pitch. I’ve been on the other side of the street. Trust me.”

Not with the Yankees he hasn’t. Don Zimmer was, though, while keeping watch on the Yankees during Torre’s absence. There has been so much noise lately about the Yankees’ quiet offense, the failures of the pitching staff have gone relatively unnoticed.

No pitcher was in a bigger funk than Hernandez, the second-year right-hander who was Cuba’s greatest pitcher until being banned over suspicion of defecting.

There were a few rocky outings for El Duque last season but in general his rookie ride was as smooth and shark-free as was the boat trip out of Cuba.

In the six starts leading into last night’s, El Duque was 1-4 with a 7.86 ERA and was 0-3 with an 11.57 ERA in the last three.

Regardless of those horrifying numbers, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre had a prediction for Hernandez when he and Torre ran into him in the elevator at the team hotel the night before his big start.

“You’re the stopper tomorrow night,” Stottlemyre told El Duque with a smile and a slap on the back.

So he was.

“It was a big win for the team,” Hernandez said. “We went through hell the last two weeks.”

Through interpreter Jose Cardenal, the first base coach, El Duque called the chat in the elevator “an inspiration. Any time someone talks to you off the field, it’s an inspiration.’

The coals were hottest under El Duque’s feet. Seldom a middle-of-the road guy in any way, Hernandez broke his slump in style, confidently tossing 2-and-0 curveballs, working both sides of the plate, changing speeds and arm angles.

It’s Clemens’ turn to keep it going tonight.

“Roger will give us a lift to help David lead the club back,” Torre said. “With Roger on the DL, David Cone has had to do it himself and he has done a hell of a job.”

If Clemens can revert to the dominance he showed in the second half of 1996 with the Red Sox and in each of his two Cy Young seasons with the Blue Jays, Cone will become the best second-best pitcher in baseball.

Clemens helps a team win in subtle ways more often than once every five days. Bernie Williams helped to explain how.

“Playing against him, when you knew you were going to face him in the series, it wasn’t just on your mind the day you faced him,” Williams said. “It was in the back of your mind the whole series.”

On his day to start, the energy a pitcher like Clemens brings to his teammates is something that can’t be quantified, but it’s there.

The fielders charge back into the dugout with a little extra juice. Even men who play a sport at the highest level get jacked by witnessing greatness up close.

Clemens was far from great in his first five starts with the Yankees, whose team ERA is nearly a full run higher than the 3.82 they finished with last season.

Pitching has been the most overlooked of the Yankees’ problems of late, but it’s also the key to them running away with the American League East.

“You’ve got to have the pitching,” Torre said. “No question. You can’t freeze that ball and you have to get 27 outs. Sometimes it seems like you’re never going to get those 27 outs.”

The Yankees happily would settle for about 21 high-octane outs from Clemens tonight against the White Sox, 21 outs that could help them on the path back to dominance, one night after El Duque gave them 24 badly needed outs.