The Yankees had beaten the Texas Rangers in three straight games and all was well. The team banners high atop the white facade of their stadium — arranged by record and flittering like lures in a stream — gracefully attested that they were secure in first place, with Baltimore a big, fat six games behind. And so, perhaps the Yankees could ease up just a bit as they went for the sweep.

At least that is the way it appeared on a warm summer Thursday afternoon as Manager Joe Girardi started only two regulars among the bottom two-thirds of his lineup — Ichiro Suzuki and Russell Martin, who was the designated hitter despite a .197 batting average.

When it was over, after the Yankees had lost, 10-6, to a team they might meet again in October, Girardi disagreed with the notion that he approached the game a little less intensely than his norm.

“Until you’ve clinched what you’ve clinched,” he said, “I never take my foot off the pedal.”

There were some reasons for his compromised lineup. Robinson Cano sat out owing to stiffness in his neck, although he did pinch-hit. And the Rangers were starting a left-hander, Derek Holland, so Eric Chavez and his .303 average and a slumping, but always dangerous, Curtis Granderson took a seat in the dugout, too.