BOSTON -- There are still just 1½ games separating the New York Yankees from the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East race, but it certainly seems as if the Yankees have to work a lot harder for their wins than the Blue Jays do.
The Yankees had to work exceptionally hard to nail down Wednesday's 13-8 victory over the Boston Red Sox, who are going nowhere despite having a 12-1 lead at the halfway point of the game and Masahiro Tanaka on the mound.
Still, it came down to Joe Girardi manipulating his bullpen as if it were the seventh game of the World Series, and having to use both his setup man, Dellin Betances and his closer, Andrew Miller, to hold off the rallying Red Sox.
But the reason was clear even before the Blue Jays took the field against the Cleveland Indians, and it became even clearer as a dozen Yankees sat watching in the postgame clubhouse as Toronto jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, including a daring dash home from third by Josh Donaldson on a pop fly to shallow center that was caught by the second baseman.
The Blue Jays are playing like a team possessed.
The Yankees? They are playing with a different kind of desperation. As Girardi said in explanation of his bullpen machinations, "This is not a game that you can afford to let get away."
In truth, there aren't many, if any, of those types of games left on the schedule.
So as odd as it might have appeared for Girardi to have Betances warming up in a 13-5 game, and as heartless as it was for him to hit for Rico Noel, who had been added as a pinch runner but found himself in the outfield when the game became less of a laugher, and as risky as it was for Girardi to use Miller -- a move that almost backfired when Brock Holt hit a sizzler off his right leg -- there was a method to Girardi's madness and a payoff for his desperation.
"At this time of the year, and the situation we're in," Girardi said, "a win is a win, and we've got an off day tomorrow. Everybody can rest tomorrow."
It might seem a bit early for that kind of damn-the-torpedoes approach, since the Yankees still have 30 games left and, after Thursday's day off, will play them in a span of 31 days. But with the Blue Jays seemingly winning every night, there really is no other choice.
Yes, Girardi could have done some things differently in this one, and there was an element of inconsistency in his approach; if he truly feared that his team's lead was not safe in Fenway, then why go to Andrew Bailey to relieve Tanaka in the sixth, considering Bailey had not pitched in a major league game in 26 months? Bailey's rust was obvious, as he walked two of the four batters he faced and allowed a sacrifice fly and an RBI single before Girardi decided to pull him.
And if Noel was here strictly to be used in pinch-running situations, why did Girardi send him to right field to replace Carlos Beltran in the seventh inning, knowing his spot in the order would come around again in the next inning?
Why go to Bryan Mitchell when you have Adam Warren? If you're warming up Miller anyway, why start the ninth with Caleb Cotham?
Why, why, why? All of these decisions made what should have been an easy win into something of a nail-biter, but luckily for Girardi, Betances and Miller bailed out the rest of the team, as they have all season. The real point is neither of them should have had to be used in a game like this. And you have to wonder how many more games like this Girardi's nerves, Betances, Miller and the Yankees can withstand over the next month.
The good news was the Yankees offense made this an easy one early. Stephen Drew, who has gone from inept to unconscious in the space of a week, had three hits, including a three-run home run in the third inning, his 17th of the season, more than every AL second baseman not named Brian Dozier.
Rookie Greg Bird, who is the everyday first baseman until further notice, hit a laser into the right-field seats in the second, and John Ryan Murphy, giving Brian McCann a day off, followed with his own home run over the Green Monster. Beltran got into the act in the eight-run third with a two-run shot, his 14th, and Didi Gregorius, who had an excellent road trip, added a solo shot in the fifth.
Tanaka, who had benefited greatly from outstanding run support in two starts this month -- the Yankees scored 13 runs in his start here on Aug. 4 and 15 runs in Atlanta on Friday -- found himself with a dozen runs to play with.
But Tanaka was at less than his best, allowing some hard-hit balls early and being charged with four runs in 6 1/3 innings. Still, it seemed like a smooth road to victory before the Yankees bullpen, and the quirks of Fenway Park, began conspiring to chip away at the lead. The cliché about no lead being safe here was showing why it has a basis, in fact, when the Red Sox loaded the bases and scored twice in the seventh and eighth innings and opened the ninth with a pair of doubles off Cotham before Girardi turned to Miller to end the laugher before it turned into tragedy.
"We were hoping not to use them," Girardi said of Miller and Betances. "But we felt, in a sense, we had to stop each inning and we didn't want to let it get out of hand. It didn't work that way. But when you're up 12-1, you can't let this game get away from you, and we didn't."
If this is what it takes for the Yankees to keep up with the Blue Jays, then so be it. But how many more of these can they -- and we -- take?