Jeter, Still Bothered by Injuries, Is Out Until at Least Monday Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press Though Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter insisted he was healthy, he has been troubled by his right calf, especially on the basepaths. SAN DIEGO - Derek Jeter stood at his locker Friday night and insisted that he was healthy, that his legs - the left leg that had gone through a lengthy rehabilitation from a twice-broken ankle and the right one that sustained a quadriceps strain - were not bothering him. "I'm all right," Jeter said. Like I told you, if I play, you don't hear anything about it. So I played. As it turned out, Jeter was not O.K. The awkward moments running the bases and the clumsy episodes in the field were not simply a matter of rust, dismissed because it had been nearly 10 months since he had played regularly. Jeter will not start Saturday night or Sunday afternoon in the final two games of a weekend series against the Padres, as he nurses lingering soreness from the quadriceps injury and deals with a previously undisclosed right calf injury. Manager Joe Girardi said he hoped to have Jeter in the lineup Monday in Chicago against the White Sox, but acknowledged that it may be as the designated hitter. "It's just the right leg," said Girardi, when asked which injury is most troublesome. It's a concern of ours and we've got to try to get him healthy. This is not something we want to mess with. Girardi said Jeter, who homered on the first pitch last Sunday in his return from the quadriceps injury, woke up Monday with soreness in his calf. Girardi said if there were 150 games left in the season, it is unlikely that Jeter would have played after the calf injury surfaced. But entering Saturday there were only 54 games remaining, and the Yankees were trailing Baltimore and Texas by four games in the race for the final American League wild-card berth. The Yankees were so desperate to give a boost to their struggling offense that Jeter was in the lineup Tuesday and Wednesday against the Dodgers and last night against the Padres. He went 1 for 11 in those three games and has looked ill at ease in the field, slow to reach balls and then errant with his throws. He has also looked uncomfortable running the bases, under an edict from Girardi not to run full speed. That led to an awkward moment Friday when Jeter cruised into third but had to slide at the last moment to avoid being out. Jeter was not available in the Yankees" clubhouse Saturday after Girardi announced that he would not start, but said Friday night that he was not disheartened by his struggles. "I don't care who you are, how good you are, at some point you're going to struggle," Jeter said. That's the bottom line. If you guys can think of a player who has played this game that's never struggled, I'd like to see it. If the Yankees thought that a less-than-healthy Jeter would be enough to perk up their offense, there was little evidence of it in recent days. In the three games since his calf injury, the Yankees have scored a total of seven runs. "Today he said it's the best he felt in a few days," Girardi said. If it is going in the right direction, I want to keep it going in the right direction and get him back at 100 percent. It has not been easy for teammates who have watched Jeter in his brief return play far below the standards he has established over his 19-year career. "He's not running as well, but I don't know if they're telling him not to do that just to make sure," first baseman Lyle Overbay said. I like him in the lineup. He's part of jump starting everything in the heart of the lineup. He can hit and when we need some offense or to get something going, he's done it and done for a long time, so when you don't have him in there, it's hard to replace. The task of replacing Jeter for now falls to Eduardo Nunez, who had spent several days preparing to move to third in the seemingly likely event Alex Rodriguez, who is nearing the end of a rehabilitation assignment, receives a lengthy suspension by Major League Baseball. Girardi reiterated Saturday that the Yankees were proceeding as if Rodriguez will join them, possibly Monday in Chicago. He laughed when asked if it were possible that Rodriguez, who played a minor league game in Trenton on Saturday, could join the Yankees on Sunday. "What are we going to do?" he said. I don't think we have a fighter jet to get him here. If some similar action were available to stimulate the Yankees" offense, Girardi might be less dismissive. The lineup he sent out Saturday included Nunez (.228), third baseman Brent Lillibridge (.200) and catcher Chris Stewart (.232) hitting ahead of pitcher Ivan Nova.Curtis Granderson, who returned Friday after the second of two lengthy injury absences, was plugged in at cleanup hitter. That is as good an indication as any of how desperate the Yankees are for the return of a healthy, reliable, dependable Jeter - at least the one they have known for years.