CHICAGO — At the completion of the Yankees’ thrilling, 3-2 victory over the Cubs on Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, neither Brett Gardner (the man who hit the game-winning, ninth-inning homer) nor Aroldis Chapman (the man who protected that lead) received the lineup card and a game ball from manager Joe Girardi.

Those souvenirs went to Jonathan Holder.

For when Gardner jacked that three-run blast to right field off Cubs backup closer Hector Rendon, and when Chapman threw a shutout bottom of the ninth, it was Holder who received credit for his first major-league victory after throwing a shutout eighth.

The win came from the “vulture” variety, what they call it when you enter a game with your team losing and then benefit from a rally. Yet Holder should not be regarded as any sort of lucky duck. Rather, the right-hander has turned his last name into his value. Most times this season, he has held the opponent at bay, and by doing so, he has become a valuable piece of Girardi’s bullpen.

“I’m excited,” Holder said Saturday. “Just trying to do one pitch at a time. Do whatever I can to help the team win.”

If he speaks clichés, he at least lives up to them with his performance. Entering Saturday night’s Yankees-Cubs game, the 23-year-old had a 2.70 ERA in 12 appearances totaling 10 innings this season. Most encouraging for the team, he had struck out 11 and walked one in that time span.

In small-sample-size theater, he had advanced leaps and bounds from the raw youngster who worked his way up the ladder last year from Single-A Tampa all the way to the Yankees. His 101 strikeouts and seven walks in 65 ¹/₃ minor-league innings forced the Yankees’ hands, what with them still in a pennant race. Then he earned a September promotion to the big leagues and didn’t help his team’s long-shot chances, recording a 5.40 ERA while fanning five and walking four in eight appearances totaling 8 ¹/₃ innings.

Asked to explain the wide gulf in results from September 2016 to April and May 2017, Holder said, “I think I didn’t have many appearances last year, but the comfort level. Having that experience last year. Being able to come out and be more comfortable this year.”

“I just think he’s more comfortable,” Girardi agreed.

“He’s more confident. He understands what he needs to do in certain situations. I also think it’s not the end of the year, either. I think he was probably fatigued at the end of last year. You know, that first time you give a young player that extra month, it’s a pretty big deal. So I think it’s just him maturing a little bit. Understanding what he needs to do.”

Holder has proven to be a quick learner, quicker than most of his contemporaries. A Yankees selection in the sixth round of the 2014 draft, he is one of just three players from that round — the others being Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Curtis and the Dodgers’ Brock Stewart — to even make the major leagues. Both Curtis and Stewart struggled in 2016 cameos, so Holder is the only guy from his round to provide any sort of positive value.

Furthermore, Holder was the second Mississippi State product popped by the Yankees in that 2014 draft. Their first pick, second-rounder Jacob Lindgren, pitched alongside Holder on the Bulldogs.

Unfortunately for the left-hander Lindgren, who pitched in seven games for the 2015 Yankees, he underwent Tommy John surgery last season and is now rehabilitating on the payroll of the Braves, who signed Lindgren after the Yankees released him.

Though Holder expressed sympathy for Lindgren, he described his quick progress as “very exciting. Something that I haven’t really thought about until you just said something. I guess it is pretty cool.”

It is pretty cool for the Yankees, too, who have themselves their deepest bullpen in quite a while, with Holder establishing himself as an important part of that.