MINNEAPOLIS _ Maybe it became obscured a bit, while the Yankees lineup made Kyle Gibson resemble Bob Gibson through five innings at Target Field.
And perhaps it became overlooked again later on Monday, when the Yankees rallied for a six-run seventh inning.
But there's a genuine competition happening among the Yankees' starters.
Who'll be the choice to start a win-or-else AL wild-card game on Oct. 3?
J.A. Happ, Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka are all bidding to be the one, with manager Aaron Boone saying recently that performance in the regular season's final weeks would play a factor.
Against the Twins on Monday night, Happ raised his hand a little higher, tossing six scoreless innings in the Yankees' 7-2 victory before 21,565 fans.
Since arriving via trade from Toronto, the left-handed Happ (16-6) is 6-0 with a 2.70 ERA in eight starts with the Yankees.
Happ was steady throughout his 91-pitch outing, yielding six hits and no walks. He struck out three batters and never had a runner advance past second base.
Meanwhile, Gibson was tossing a four-hit shutout through 5 2/3 innings, though he flirted with danger, with runners in scoring position in each inning.
After fouling off a 2-and-2 pitch, Gary Sanchez broke up the scoreless tie with his 16th homer of the year _ a tremendous blast in the sixth
Luis Cessa gave up two runs in relief, as the Yankees were able to rest their high-profile bullpen arms on Monday.
Sonny Gray gets a spot start Tuesday against the Twins (65-78), but the focus returns to Severino in Wednesday's finale.
Severino's rough second half has opened the door for Happ or Tanaka _ coming off an eight shutout innings Friday at Seattle _ to get the ball in a wild-card game.
Sanchez's two-out blast off Gibson (7-13) was estimated to have traveled at 460 feet, landing in the left field third deck.
Before that clout, the Yankees (90-54) had resumed leaving a raft of runners in scoring position.
They stranded seven of them _ at least one per inning _ through the sixth, going 0-for-8 after Sunday's 2-for-15 in a 3-2 loss at Seattle.
The gates finally opened against Minnesota's bullpen in the seventh.
After leadoff walks by Andrew McCutchen and Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar (two RBIs), Giancarlo Stanton and Didi Gregorius (RBI) delivered three consecutive doubles.
For Andujar, it was his 40th double of the year, nearing Joe DiMaggio's franchise rookie record of 44 doubles in 1936.
And for Stanton, it was a sign of life in a swing that produced just one previous RBI during the first six games of this road trip.
After striking out in Monday's first two at-bats against Gibson, Stanton led off the sixth with a hard line out to third.
It was an indication that Stanton's timing was returning, though it also made him 3-for-28 (.107) for the trip.
Currently the AL's second wild card, the Oakland Athletics _ idle on Monday _ sit three full games behind the Yankees for the right to host the elimination play-in game.
"We want to play at home," Boone said earlier on Monday, talking about the goal of hosting a wild-card game.
Traveling across the country for a one-game proposition is a lousy alternative. And the Red Sox own an eight-game AL East lead on the Yanks, with 18 regular season games remaining.
"That said, our goal right now is to continue to get guys healthy and back into the fold," Boone said. And to "really start to play our best baseball at this time of year."
There was additional good news on the health front, Monday, as slugging right fielder Aaron Judge (chip fracture, right wrist) took batting practice on the field.
That was a first for Judge since being hit by a Jakob Junis fastball on July 26 against Kansas City.
If Judge is able to face live pitching by the weekend, maybe he's then days away from returning to the Yankees' lineup.
