Yankees using their best Judge-ment

NEW YORK — As full champagne bottles remained in hiding Tuesday in the visitors’ clubhouse, Yankees manager Aaron Boone went ahead and popped the cork on his most potent potable.

The jury’s verdict on the American League East has long since been in. There has been no suspense for weeks. The Red Sox are guilty of a historic season. This wasn’t about the jury. This was about the Judge.

The Yankees’ most formidable slugger and feared presence was back in the lineup for the first time since he suffered a chip fracture of his right wrist July 26. Aaron Judge played a couple of innings in the field Friday, but now here he was, to a huge ovation, lumbering to the plate at 7:19 p.m to face Nathan

Eovaldi.

This was supposed to be the first of two September series that decided an epic pennant race. Sure enough, as the calendar flipped to July, the Yankees and Red Sox were tied for first place in the American League East.

Early on, Red Sox manager Alex Cora said he examined the last month’s schedule, looked at those starting arms with the Mets followed by six games over the final two weeks against the Yankees.

“September is going to be fun,” Cora said he remembered thinking. “But it’s going to be tough.”

Didn’t happen. The Yankees have gone 38-31 since the start of July. The Red Sox have gone 47-19. September wasn’t tough. And as the remnants of Hurricane Florence cleared, turning a matinee into a 7 p.m. start, this series instead stands as a coronation of Boston’s regular-season domination.

No, the champagne did not flow in the Red Sox clubhouse on this night. Neil Walker’s three-run homer in the seventh off Ryan Brasier gave the Yankees a 3-2 win, a win that merely will delay the inevitable. The Sox have a

101⁄ game lead.

Cora knows the celebration is coming, and the bench coach for the 2017 World Series champion Astros talked easily on this day.

“(Celebrations) are for the players and not the managers and coaches,” Cora said. “They’re the ones who play every day, go through slumps, hot stretches, div- ing to make plays. It’s cool to be in the corner watching them, they’ll come up to you and give you a hug and tell you thank you.”

The hugs will come for the rookie manager, only two shy of tying the franchise record of 105 wins. It will be the Red Sox’s third successive AL East title.

Boone, meanwhile, continues to talk about how teams historically have entered the postseason in all sorts of ways — hot, slumping, middling — and have still managed to have great Octobers. While true enough, Boone’s Yankees certainly need to play better than the 26-22 record they compiled without Judge.

Judge initially was supposed to be out three weeks after he was hit by a pitch from Jakob Junis of the Royals. That prognosis wasn’t even close. Boone said he’d write Judge’s name in just for fun during his absence. Asked how it felt to finally write it in the lineup for real, the manager smiled and answered, “Fun.”

“Not only is Aaron a special player, he’s a special presence on our club,” Boone said. “I do believe there’s more impact there potentially than even his outstanding performance. We hope that’s the case. We hope he can provide one of those intangible things you can’t always put your finger on. I certainly believe he’s one of those guys.”

Before the hard afternoon rain fell, Judge would get in his swings in his second simulated game in two days. Adonis Rosa pitched. Boone, Brian Cashman, Marcus Thames, Reggie Jackson and trainer Steve Donahue were among 10 members of the organization studying Judge closely.

As long as the wrist saga dragged on, ultimately the storms got Judge into the lineup one day earlier. Judge got finished hitting around 11:30 a.m. Boone deliberated for about an hour with Cashman and Donahue and then with Judge. He had enough time to recover.

“He was chomping at the bit to get in there,” Boone said. “He’s like, ‘I’m ready to go.’ So tonight we go.

“I feel physically over the last week he has been ready. It’s checking the boxes and making sure he has done everything. We want to start that clock of getting him in there and playing and getting him those ABs so he can find that timing sooner rather than later.”

When Judge went out he was hitting .285 with 26 homers and 61 RBIs in 372 at-bats. How far is he away from returning to that 52home run menace of 2017?

“That’s the great question,” Boone said. “We’ll find out. Hitting is a funny thing. Sometimes it happens real quick. Sometimes it takes a little time. Hopefully, it clicks for him pretty quickly. Physically he’s real strong. It’s just a matter of getting good timing.”

Judge rifled a line drive directly at right fielder J.D. Martinez. He hit into a double play in the third. In the sixth, Judge sliced a high fly to the right field corner, but Martinez pulled it in at the fence. He struck out on a full count in the eighth, 0-for-4, but nearly had two hits.

“He looked like he hadn’t missed a beat,” Boone said. “He had a presence, an edge, you could feel it in the dugout.”

Despite going hitless, Judge felt right at home when he strode to the plate.

“I felt like I never left,” Judge said. “It’s like riding a bike. I knew after the first day of simulated at-bats I was good to go. There will be some pain, but it doesn’t affect my swing.

“We get Chapman back, we’re going to be a force.”

Boone, who expects to activate closer Aroldis Chapman in the next 24 hours, has tough decisions to make. The price of Red Sox regular-season greatness is a one-game, winnertake-all wild-card series.

The Yankees entered the night only 11⁄ games ahead of Oakland. There is no certainty whether that game will be at Yankee Stadium or Oakland. Will Boone start Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino or J.A. Happ? The entire season could rest on that decision. Catcher Gary Sanchez has hit feathers since returning from the DL and he heard boos on this Bronx night. Does Boone trust the potential power of Sanchez’s bat, or does he so fear another passed ball he plays Austin Romine?

Brett Gardner, the longtenured Yankee who has had a lot of big autumn hits, could be watching from the dugout as Andrew McCutchen plays the outfield. That one could get tense, especially with the fans. Yet for now, with champagne on ice and Judge out of ice, Boone could feel good about the way Judge extends his batting order.

“We have to attack him the same way we always do and hope we keep the ball in the ballpark,” Cora said. “He’s a great player. He’s a game changer.”

The Yankees hope Judge is their season changer. The champagne that matters is sprayed in October.