NEW YORK — Delirious only minutes earlier, fans at Yankee Stadium sat stunned in utter disbelief while they watched Derek Jeter being helped off the field, his left leg dangling.

Their worst fears were met, too. The durable captain broke his left ankle in the 12th inning of the AL championship series opener Saturday night and is out for the rest of the postseason. “It’s kind of crushing,” outfielder Nick Swisher said.

Three innings after Raul Ibanez sent the 47,122 in Yankee Stadium into a frenzy with a tying two-run homer, the New York shortstop silenced the crowd when he went down and didn’t get up after making a tumbling stop on Jhonny Peralta’s grounder.