BOSTON — Eduardo Nunez did not want to look back. There wasn't much uplifting in the .207 average he brought into yesterday's game against the Red Sox. And he didn't want to dwell on an opportunity wasted this season when the Yankees needed him to fill in for Derek Jeter.
"It's all part of baseball. Every day is a new day," Nunez said. "If you play today thinking about how you did last night, it's not going to happen for you. You have to put the game behind you every time and turn the page.
"I know I'm better than that [.207], so I have to do it keep working hard, working to prove I can do it. I'm not worried about my numbers now. I still have like a half season."
So maybe 2013 finally started for Nunez, who forged his second three-hit game of the season in the Yankees' 5-2 victory over the Red Sox. Nunez doubled in the second inning, singled and stole a base (but was thrown out at home on a fielder's choice) in the fifth then doubled and scored in the Yanks' three-run seventh.
"Nuney came up huge for us today," manager Joe Girardi said.
And Nunez swore he felt it coming.
"I'm not a .200 hitter. I work hard in the cage every day," he said. "I was thinking before the game I would have three hits."
So maybe some of the frustration of a season of blown opportunities will lift. As the guy who logically would have filled in during Jeter's lengthy rehab from two ankle fractures, Nunez missed 56 games on the disabled list himself with a strained left oblique.
"It has been very frustrating, very tough," Nunez said. "[Early on] every time I tried to practice it bothered me a lot. ... It's very, very tough when you work all your life for this opportunity and this happens."
Nunez was hitting just .200 when he went on the DL in May. When he returned from the infirmary July 6, he went 2 for 3 against Baltimore. Then the struggles resumed. After that two-hit game, Nunez went 5 of 28 (.179) including a 1-for-12 streak before yesterday.
"He started off swinging the bat pretty well and he's struggled as of late," said Girardi who recently suggested Nunez perhaps came back a bit too soon. "Just kind of jumping at the ball a little bit too much. Hitters go through that where they'll swing the bat well for a while and then they'll get in slumps, so we need to get him out of it. We need his at bats to be more consistent because he can be productive."
Like he was yesterday.
"That's the thing about being a hitter, it can change real quickly," Girardi said. "And you get to go out there the next day. If you're a starting pitcher sometimes you've got to wait five days."
Nunez has waited most of the season to get going. Maybe this was a start.
"Some players start slow," Nunez said. "But remember it's not how you start but how you finish."
fred.kerber@nypost.com
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