A-Rod says it "would have been devastating" had the Yankees lost

A loss last night to the Red Sox would have been "devastating," according to Alex Rodriguez, and he's absolutely right.

The Yankees would have gone to Toronto riding a five-game losing streak capped by a rare ninth-inning failure by Mariano Rivera. Suddenly the thought of putting together a regular-season collapse worse than what the Mets suffered in 2007 wouldn't have been so unthinkable.

To say there would have been tension in the visitor's clubhouse tonight in Toronto had the Yankees lost last night would be an understatement.

Of course, none of that matters now following a dramatic 4-3 win in 10 innings, a victory Rodriguez called their biggest of the season. 

"This was a huge game," Rodriguez said. "There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. It was an enormous game for us, especially because it's our last home game for a bit now. Again, I think it would have been devastating to lose a game at home like that." 

But they didn't, thanks to a tying RBI single by Robinson Cano in the ninth and a walkoff bases-loaded walk issued to Juan Miranda by Hideki Okajima in the tenth. 

But long before all that drama, there was a huge home run by Rodriguez, a two-run shot in the seventh that erased a 1-0 deficit. At the time, Rodriguez admitted, he thought it was his biggest home run of the season.

"I've never seen Matsuzaka throw the ball as well and as sharp as he threw it tonight," Rodriguez said. "He was pretty incredible... One mistake."

It was an 0-and-2 fastball Rodriguez that lined just over the wall in right-centerfield, and Rodriguez responded by raising his arm in the air as he rounded first base. But after everything that took place in the late innings, it was easy to forget about that one.

The Red Sox scored two runs off Rivera in the ninth inning to take a 3-2 lead, with Rodriguez unable to knock down Bill Hall's hard grounder to his left, which tied the score. But as disappointing and shocking as that was, Rodriguez said he didn't allow himself to get down.

"You've got to keep rolling with the punches," Rodriguez said. "You know we're going to have one more at-bat. You know you have three outs remaining. You know you've just got to battle. The one thing, playing for this city, playing for this team, playing in this division, you're not going to go the whole year and not get challenged."

As for whether this was the biggest win of year, Rodriguez added: "There's no question. It was a playoff atmosphere for us out there. I'm not going to say it was a must win but it was a very important win for us and to come back in that fashion also was very important."