Modest but productive returns for Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis

Perhaps if the fires of Yankees offensive inefficiency hadn't begun to rage this week, the return of Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis wouldn't feel so much like baseball's version of smoke-jumping.

On Friday night, the two former All-Stars, out with injuries for a combined 83 games, parachuted into a hot American League East situation and a 4-1 victory over the rival Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

Youkilis (1-for-4, two strikeouts) contributed an RBI single in the fifth inning to stretch the Yankees' lead to 3-0. He said he won't complain if Joe Girardi chooses to keep him in the designated hitter role for a few games instead of using him at third base.

"I get paid a lot of money to be a baseball player and I'm living my dream," Youkilis said, "so I'm not complaining too much."

Teixeira, playing first base for the first time this season, walked and scored the first run before going 0-for-3 (two strikeouts).

He conceded that "it's going to take a few days to get the rust out. But great first at-bat, drew a walk and got around the bases. You want to feel that you're helping out."

Not that they demonstrated they can extinguish recent Yankees troubles alone.

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"I've played long enough to realize, no matter how good I am, or how good Kevin Youkilis is, there's not one person who can carry a team," Teixeira said. "You want to do well, but you can't put the weight of the world on your shoulders."

Said Youkilis, "I'm just one person. Some days I'll be great. Some days other guys will be great. That's baseball. A lot of ups and downs."

But Girardi called their impact "big; we need to keep them healthy, because [having them] changes our lineup because it gives us better balance."

Teixeira, 33, had been on the disabled list since suffering a partially torn tendon sheath in his right wrist early in spring training. Youkilis, 34, was knocked out by a back problem a month ago. To be back in commission, Teixeira said, "is very exciting."

"Nothing in my body is as good as new," he said. "You play as many games as I have , you have to deal with certain things. But the wrist feels great. I've had a similar injury on my left wrist, so now I'm a little more symmetrical."

Theoretically, the Yankees are, too. Forced to fly coach with fill-ins for injured headliners, they found it not to be so uncomfortable through a smooth first two months, at least until this week. But as Teixeira said: "We want to have our team back. Like, not seeing Derek Jeter on the Yankees is weird."

Mariano Rivera, one of the few veterans not lost to injury this season, called the return of Teixeira and Youkilis "great. We're getting them back, little by little. But we're a team; two guys don't make a team."

They do, however, "make us deeper," Girardi said. Ergo, better.