NEW YORK -- As Daniel Bard pointed out, a lot can happen in what is left of this, the 2010 regular season.

But as we sit here right now, Monday afternoon offered us a glimpse into two things:

1. Perhaps the most important inning of the '10 season for the Red Sox; and 2. A good view of the player who just might be the most important piece of this Sox roster.

First, the inning …

With the Red Sox leading by two runs and one out in the seventh, Bard was summoned with the bases loaded full of Yankees and a future Hall of Famer, Derek Jeter, striding to the plate. 

It may have been Aug. 9, but the only other feeling Bard had to compare the intensity of the moment to was last Oct. 11. It was then he was summoned to come on for Clay Buchholz with the bases loaded and nobody out in the sixth inning in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.

The feeling was the same, as were the results.

In the playoff game, Bard would induce a double-play grounder and a pop-up to end the threat. This time around he managed to strike out both Jeter and Nick Swisher on just six pitches with nothing but high 90s heat.

"The intensity was the same," Bard said of the two appearances. "At this time, this is the most important game for this team this season.

"You don't like to put too much emphasis on one regular-season game with 50 games to go, but it's hard not to with all the attention these games get. The fact it's in the division and how many people care about this game, it had the same feel for sure."

The Red Sox have played 1,018 innings (the second-most in baseball), yet the seventh inning in what what would turn out to be a 2-1 victory for the Sox over the Yankees might have been the most important of them all.

"You could say that. I'm not going to, but you could. It might be," Bard said. "It is a big inning. I guess we wouldn't be able to tell until the whole thing plays out. But it could be a turning point."

That leads us to the worth of Bard.

On a 25-man roster, it is hard to identify which player the team could least do without. Certainly if the Sox didn't have the bat of Adrian Beltre you would be looking at a far more anemic offense. And the presence of Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz at the top of the rotation is undeniably vital.

But is there anybody whom the Red Sox must have at their disposal if they are going to be able to function on a day-in, day-out basis more than Bard? You could make the argument that there isn't anybody more valuable, and Monday offered another example of that.

"I want the team to want me in that situation," he said after riding out his season-high 29-pitch outing.

That's the point. They desperately want him in that situation.

Jonathan Papelbon's worth is well known, and it was put on display as he got the last four outs for the Sox Monday. But the reality is that while the ninth inning is often the place for some important outs, if you add them all up, more pivotal moments can be found in the seventh and eighth innings. And it is there where Bard lives.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, Bard has come on and pitched in "high leverage" situations for 103 plate appearances. During those instances he has limited his opponents to a .133 batting average without giving up a home run. It is a situation he has been in more than any other, having gone through "medium leverage" scenarios for 52 plate appearances and "low leverage" occasions for 38 plate appearances.

While such statistics might seem a bit too out-of-the-box for some, it is easy to comprehend Bard's worth by simply looking at what he delivers and how there is nobody else on the roster (save Papelbon) who can offer such value.

He is first in the American League in holds (25), while holding the third-best batting average against in the AL of any reliever (.157), only behind New York's Mariano Rivera and Joaquin Benoit of Tampa Bay.

There are cases to be made for which Red Sox player is the most valuable, but one thing that you should keep coming back to when it comes to stating the case for Bard is this: Taking Papelbon out of the equation (because his role is cemented, a designated part of the game), is there a greater drop-off at any position on the team than the one between Bard and the next option?

"I like to keep everybody as relaxed as possible," he joked after Monday's game.

And in Yankee Stadium, with the bases loaded, nobody out, and the momentum of the season hanging in the balance, that was a tall task. One that Bard was up to … again.