NEW YORK _ There are four full months left in the MLB season, lest we forget how long and perilous a baseball year is.
And there are still 16 more Red Sox-Yankees meetings, including two games this weekend.
There's time for the defending world champions to find their way, hit the accelerator and soar back to the top of the division.
Yet, the Yankees have run out to such a wide lead on their rivals, with so many marquee players on the injured list, that the Red Sox might ultimately regret this period.
By closing out May and ushering in summer with Friday night's 4-1 win against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, manager Aaron Boone's Yankees opened an 8.5-game AL East lead on their third-place rivals.
Furthermore, the Yankees beat lefty ace Chris Sale for the second time this year, while J.A. Happ held it together for five innings and handed off to a reliable relay of Yankees' relievers.
With a rested bullpen, Boone used Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman (16 saves) to blank Boston on two hits over the final four frames.
Of course, Boone wasn't busy calculating any magic numbers for clinching a division title on Thursday, when the opener of this (now) three-game series was rained out.
"We're playing the Boston Red Sox. We know how good they are over there," Boone said before the series opened. "We know that we have to play really well.
"But we can't win Sunday's game today. We can't win three games today. It's (about) what do we have to do today and what's our plan?
"That may sound like something on a billboard, but that's how we approach it," Boone said. "We've got to get ready to go and try to win a game."
Once more, it was an ensemble cast that contributed to the Yankees' 29th win in their last 38 games, maintaining at least a half-game lead on the second-place Rays.
Aaron Hicks delivered a huge, two-out, two-run single in the third inning and DJ LeMahieu doubled and homered for two runs off Sale (1-7), who lasted six innings.
And catcher Gary Sanchez put his cannon arm to work, firing to second base and picking off ex-Yankee Eduardo Nunez to end the fifth inning.
At the time, the Yankees (37-19) had just intentionally walked Mookie Betts to put runners at first and second, setting up a lefty-lefty matchup between Happ and Andrew Benintendi in a 3-1 game.
As it turned out, Happ (5-3) never had to navigate past Benintendi _ thanks to Sanchez's peg to shortstop Gleyber Torres, who made a terrific tag on Nunez.
Before 45,556 fans, LeMahieu put the exclamation point on the inning with his sixth homer of the year and the Red Sox (29-28) were headed toward their third straight defeat.
And the Friday night crowd was electric from the start, though Sale matched their energy by striking out the side swinging _ in order _ in the home first inning.
For the fifth time in his last six starts, Sale reached double-digits in strikeouts with 10.
But the Yankees methodically worked him for three runs in the third, set up by Gio Urshela's leadoff single and a one-out single during a typically tough Brett Gardner at-bat.
LeMahieu, who fell down swinging at a first-inning third strike, sent an RBI double off the base of the right-center-field wall.
And with two out, Hicks slashed his two-run single through the left side for a 3-1 lead.
Happ gave up his 15th homer this year (in 12 starts) in the second, on Rafael Devers' massive leadoff shot into the right-field bleachers.
But that was all the Sox's damage against Happ, who yielded three hits and two walks and struck out five batters.
