NEW YORK -- New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi had a tough day -- and his players didn’t do him any favors.

In New York’s 2-1, 12-inning loss to the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, Girardi had to exhaust his overtaxed bullpen while making a couple key decisions that didn’t pan out.

“I think [Sunday is] a really big game for us because we have to make up ground, and we’ve been around .500 and we’ve been staying there,” said Girardi, whose team is seven games back in the American League East and 4 1/2 back in the wild-card race, despite playing better since the All-Star break.

Girardi didn’t want to use Andrew Miller (43 1/3 IP) and Dellin Betances (49 IP) again Saturday, but with every game feeling like a must-win for the remainder of this up-and-down season, he did anyway. Miller pitched the eighth, Aroldis Chapman went the next two innings, and Betances worked the 11th, further adding to their workload.

“It hurts because we had some opportunities to score runs, and we didn’t do it,” Girardi said.

The Yankees went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and the Giants finally snapped a six-game losing streak.

“We pitched well, but we didn’t hit,” Carlos Beltran said.

They had their best chance to emerge victorious in the 10th.

After Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner walked to open the inning, Girardi opted to have Jacoby Ellsbury bunt Hicks and Gardner to second and third, which took the bat out of Beltran’s hands in the process.

Beltran was intentionally walked, and Brian McCann failed to get Hicks home, as he flew out to shallow left. Starlin Castro followed by flying out to right, which ended the threat.

“You know that [they’re going to walk Beltran], but you know that all you need is a sac fly from Mac, and you’ve got incredible speed on third base,” Girardi said. “It’s a tough call, but you want to make sure that you have that opportunity.”

Said McCann: “I gotta get that job done, and it’s disappointing that I didn’t come through.”

Girardi later came out to the mound and called for Betances to intentionally walk Brandon Crawford with two outs in the 11th and Angel Pagan on third. Betances threw the ensuing pitch over McCann’s head -- though not far enough to score Pagan -- and forced the manager to abandon that plan in favor of having his right-handed reliever pitch to Crawford. Betances, who has issued just three intentional free passes in his career, eventually got Crawford to ground out to second to end the inning.

“That was nerve-wracking right there,” Betances said.

Mac Williamson, who had a hand in all three runs scored during the game, delivered an RBI single off Anthony Swarzak in the 12th, which proved to be enough.

Ivan Nova (7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 7 K) and Johnny Cueto (6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 9 K) each threw the ball well. Nova gave up a solo homer to Williamson in the fifth, and Cueto gave up an unearned run in the fourth when Williamson misplayed No. 7 hitter Mark Teixeira’s lined single to right field, which allowed Didi Gregorius to come around and score from first.

Eventually, it turned into a game of bullpens, and the Yankees couldn’t keep exchanging zeroes.

Score one for the "sell" crowd, which would prefer that GM Brian Cashman trade some of the team’s veterans for prospects who could help the franchise down the line. That makes sense.

The Yankees (49-48) have played better since the All-Star break, but their record is just 5-4 over that span. If they’re going to make a case for keeping the team together, they need to start stacking some wins together.

New York will send the struggling Nathan Eovaldi (8-6, 4.93 ERA) to the mound against San Francisco’s Jeff Samardzija (9-5, 4.05) in the rubber game on Sunday.

“Every game for us is important. We have to come in here with that mentality every single day,” Beltran said. “We don’t worry about [the future regarding trades]. That’s not in our hands. We have to go out and perform, but the organization is going to make whatever decision they’re going to make, so we can’t worry about that.”