Joe Torre was faced with a situation yesterday in which the Book, even more than the Red Sox, was his enemy. One of the hallmarks of a great leader is flexibility; learning and leadership are indispensable to each other. Those that lead by the Book frequently find the Book has no answers. The ability to adapt to an emergency is predicated on having the mental facility to throw away the blueprint and deal with what is actually happening.

Perhaps because he works for the Owner Most Likely To Second-Guess, perhaps because being the game’s second oldest manager means you have to be old school, Torre has spent a good part of the last few years managing by the Book. At times, this has expressed itself as a wistful desire to have someone who can steal bases bat leadoff, but most often the Book has affected the usage of Mariano Rivera and the bullpen. Even in the most dire situations, Rivera has had to wait his turn behind clearly inferior pitchers (which is to say everyone else).

Even World Series games have been thrown away on the belief that a team’s best reliever should not be used in a tie game, or on the road,or even to keep an opponent with a lead within hailing distance. All teams, and this year more than ever the Yankees, have far more situations that fit the definition “critical emergency” than they do “save situation.” Torre is the rare leader with superior force, with an atomic bomb, in his bullpen, but he won’t use it.

Yesterday, with the possibility of yet another dramatic home run from David Ortiz staring him in the face, Torre finally put down the Book and got to managing. With two out in the top of the eighth inning, and the Yankees clinging to a 1-0 lead, Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli reached first base against Tom Gordon. David Ortiz, the Yankee killer, had been benched for the day because, although he hits left-handers reasonably well, New York’s starter, Randy Johnson, is no ordinary left-hander. With Johnson gone and righty Gabe Kapler due to hit, Boston manager Terry Francona reached for his slugging MVP candidate.

For the Yankees, and for Torre – who is rumored to be on the way out if the Yankees don’t go deep into October – the whole season had been building to this moment. Not only does Ortiz make a habit of getting big hits off of Yankees pitching, but Boston had not lost a 1-0 game in more than two years. If things went according to the script, Ortiz would sock a two-run home run, giving the Sox a 2-1 lead and a likely win. The Yankees would then be looking at a four-game deficit in the division race with only three games to play against the Red Sox – all at Fenway, on the last weekend of the season.

Worse, a loss to the Red Sox would not only likely seal the division title for the Beaneaters, it would also severely damage the wild-card effort. The Cleveland Indians already possessed a 1 1/2 game lead in that race. The Indians have been one of the hottest teams in baseball, going 26-10 (.722, equivalent to 117 wins over a full season) down the August-September stretch. With a weak schedule in front of them, the chances of the Indians breaking down are slim. Maybe yesterday’s game wasn’t a must-win for the Yankees, but it was awfully close.

With Ortiz due to face Gordon, Torre had several options. It was only the eighth inning, so he could choose to let Gordon remain and finish “setting up” Rivera for the ninth. He could also deploy one of his lefty set-up men and try to gain a platoon advantage against Ortiz. A left-handed hitter, Ortiz has nonetheless hit lefties quite well this year, battering them for .292 AVG/.353 OBA/.506 SLG percentages. In the past, though, he has clearly been less at ease against them. The on-deck hitter, Johnny Damon, was also left-handed. The Book would strongly advise that Torre use one of his southpaw relievers, Alan Embree or Wayne Franklin, to subdue Ortiz.

Here’s where the limitations of letting ideology do your thinking for you become apparent. What the Book doesn’t know is that New York’s lefty relievers aren’t very good. The Yankees began the year with Buddy Groom and Mike Stanton as the bullpen portsiders. When they failed, they were replaced by Franklin and Embree. The group as a whole has been useless, combining for two wins, five losses, 13 holds, 60.1 innings, 71 hits, 38 earned runs, six home runs, 19 walks, and an ERA of 5.67 in 79 games.

The platoon advantage gained by the defense when a lefty pitcher is used against a lefty batter is only one element of the batter-pitcher matchup. It would seem obvious that an excellent pitcher who is right-handed would be more likely to get an out than would a bad pitcher who happens to be left-handed. The Book doesn’t say so, at least not the chapters Torre had been reading. All year long, when confronted by similar situations, Torre has played the set-up game, losing chances to use Rivera to protect actual leads.

This was, finally, not the case yesterday. Torre skipped the sacrificial lambs and went right to Rivera, who pitched carefully to Ortiz and walked him, then retired Damon. For once, the Yankee manager gambled the season on his best pitcher. The door to the division title would remain open for at least one more day.

Mr. Goldman is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel, released this year.