But the prospect of a healthy Holliday for the remaining 27 games of the regular season was probably the most encouraging development of the day for the Yankees, who have missed his bat in the middle of their lineup, and his stabilizing presence in the clubhouse, particularly his influence on the rookie slugger Aaron Judge.

“I think it’s a very good relationship,” Girardi said of the friendship between Holliday and Judge. “I think it could be helpful getting Matt back, and not just for his presence in the lineup. If we get the guy that we had in the first half, it’s extremely important.”

It has been a frustrating season for Holliday, who hit .262, with 15 home runs, 47 runs batted in and an .877 on-base plus slugging percentage in the first half of the season despite missing 14 games just before the All-Star break with a virus.

But in the second half — and more notably, since playing in those 43 innings in a three-day period — Holliday has batted just .143, with two home runs and seven R.B.I. Holliday played down the effect that grueling stretch had on his 37-year-old body.

“I don’t ever remember playing that much in that short a time, and in fact, I didn’t even realize it,” he said. “But I think being a designated hitter made it a little easier.”

He prefers, he said, to look to what could be ahead for the Yankees.

“I’m focused on the next month, trying to stay in the moment and enjoy being back on the field,” Holliday said. “I would like to win another championship, and I think we have a talented enough team to do that.”

Inside Pitch

Center fielder Aaron Hicks, who came off the disabled list on Aug. 9 after missing 39 games with a strained right oblique, left the game in the seventh inning after feeling tightness in his left oblique, an injury that occurred when he ran down a deep drive by Hanley Ramirez in the sixth inning. Hicks was sent for a magnetic resonance imaging exam after the game. Jacoby Ellsbury hit for Hicks in the seventh inning, and his leadoff triple led to the Yankees’ fifth run. … Second baseman Starlin Castro was not in the lineup because, Joe Girardi said, Castro had lost a front tooth after Friday’s game and was visiting a dentist on Saturday. “It was a root canal, not his real front tooth, and he did not sleep much last night,” Girardi said, adding, “I’m assuming he bit into something and it came out.”