NEW YORK _ As much as the Yankees needed a series victory against the Red Sox, they also needed Aaron Judge to take a step toward regaining his first-half form.
The Yankees got both on Sunday.
Judge capped a Yankees power display by slugging a two-run home run in the sixth inning, sealing a 9-2 win over the Red Sox in front of 46,717 at Yankee Stadium.
A big showing from the Yankees' bats, coupled with another stellar outing from Luis Severino, pulled New York to within 3 { games of first-place Boston in the AL East.
Chase Headley, Matt Holliday and Todd Frazier also homered off Red Sox ace Chris Sale, while Starlin Castro was 3-for-5 with a three-run double.
And with the win, the Yankees won the four-game series.
This was the final time the rivals play each during the regular season, meaning the Yankees are going to have to keep winning and hope the Red Sox sputter in the final month of the season in order to pull even.
It's not an ideal situation for the Yankees, but they'll take it.
"You have to rely on somebody else and then you have to still play extremely well," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said before the game. "You could win the rest of your games and if they win the rest of their games it doesn't matter."
The Yankees' offensive explosion began with another big night from Headley, who entered the game 7-for-26 in his career against Sale. He improved those numbers on Sunday.
Quickly.
After hitting a single in the first, Headley hit a solo homer in the third to give the Yankees an early lead.
The Yanks just kept scoring from there.
In his second game back since coming off the disabled list, Holliday, who homered on Saturday, hit a solo shot with one out in the fourth. Frazier then followed that up with a home run of his own.
A single by Castro with one out in the fifth ended Sale's night. The Yankees then turned the game into a blowout against Boston's bullpen with a six-run sixth.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Gary Sanchez hit a grounder to third. Rafael Devers came up firing, and a sprinting Sanchez was initially called out. But Girardi challenged the call _ and won.
Sanchez was ruled safe. A run scored. And that was only the start as the Bombers knocked the ball all over the field against former Met Addison Reed.
Castro cleared the bases with a three-run double. Judge then lined his 38th homer of the season into the left-field bleachers to put the Yankees up, 9-1.
It was Judge's first home run since Aug. 16, and just his eighth since the All-Star break.
The Yankees' onslaught was more than enough run support for Severino, who delivered another superlative outing.
The right-hander allowed just two hits in six innings. He didn't walk a batter and struck out nine.
Severino also recorded his 200th strikeout of the season during the game, becoming the first American League pitcher with a 200-strikeout season at 23 or younger since Felix Hernandez in 2009.
The only run the Red Sox scored off Severino was unearned.
With one out in the sixth, Eduardo Nunez reached on an error by Frazier. After Andrew Benintendi flied out, Mookie Betts hit a grounder to third. Frazier made a bad throw for a two-base error.
Nunez then scored on a passed ball by Gary Sanchez.
But with the Stadium crowd on its feet, Severino struck out Mitch Moreland to avoid further trouble.
This was a big outing for Severino.
In the thick of a pennant race and in a game the Yankees needed, the 23-year-old delivered for the Yankees.
