His pitch count was holding steady into the eighth, but would a fresh Yankee arm be needed?

That looked like the case after J.J. Hardy sewed a double down the right field line. But CC Sabathia, finally hitting the 100-pitch milestone, struck out Adam Jones, then Matt Wieters split his bat in half on a foulout to Mark Teixeira and Mark Reynolds dribbled a grounder to shortstop, ending the threat.

Let us all proceed to the ninth inning. Do not pass "Go."