CLEVELAND _ Before the Yankees' scoring drought ended Sunday in a hail of runs, there was Luis Severino, doing his part as the unquestioned staff ace.
Severino was locked in a tight battle at Progressive Field until a five-run sixth, capped by Jacoby Ellsbury's bases-clearing triple off Carlos Carrasco.
And in the seventh, Aaron Judge's three-run homer _ a patented laser shot to right-center field _ put the exclamation point on an 8-1 Yankees win against the Indians before 33,044 fans.
Severino's strong, 62/3-inning effort helped the Yankees (59-51) to a four-game series split with the defending AL champion Indians (59-50), currently leading the AL Central.
Headed to Toronto for a three-game series beginning on Tuesday, the Yankees remained three games behind AL East-leading Boston pending their outcome Sunday against the White Sox.
The Yankees had scored just eight total runs in their last five games _ winning just once, Saturday's 2-1 decision against Cleveland _ before busting through with eight runs in the span of two consecutive innings.
After Michael Brantley cracked a solo home run with two outs in the first inning, Severino (9-4) did not yield another hit until Edwin Encarnacion's bouncing single up the middle with two out in the seventh.
That was Severino's last pitch of the game, exiting with an 8-1 lead. He walked just one batter and struck out nine, improving his record to 4-0 over his last six starts with a 1.36 ERA in that span.
Cleveland's two hits off Severino matched the lowest total of any start by the right-hander this year; he gave up two hits over seven innings in a June 10 win against the Orioles.
But Carrasco (10-5) was making quick work of the Yankees' lineup, allowing just one baserunner _ a Didi Gregorius two-out single in the fourth _ through the first four innings.
Cleveland still clung to a 1-0 lead in the sixth when the Yankees' small uprising turned into a big inning.
Leading off the sixth, Brett Gardner singled _ giving him a hit in 17 of his last 18 games _ and he moved to third on Clint Frazier's double to left, his 15th extra-base hit in his first 27 games.
After Gregorius (leading the club with a .322 average with runners in scoring position) popped out, Judge was intentionally walked and Chase Headley tied it with a sacrifice fly to center
Todd Frazier drew walk to re-load the bases for Ellsbury, who banged a three-run triple off the right field wall and ended Carrasco's afternoon.
In 52/3 innings, Carrasco was charged with five runs on six hits and two walks. He had six strikeouts.
Judge's three-run liner off reliever Mike Clevinger abruptly carried over the right-center field wall was his AL-leading 35th homer of the year.
It was also Judge's first home run of August, coming on the heels of a 4 for 27 (.148) slide.
Slumping defensively, catcher Gary Sanchez _ who leads MLB with 12 passed balls _ was benched Sunday in favor of backup Austin Romine, who was in-step with Severino all afternoon.
