A SWAT 16!

Sanchez, Judge combine for 4 HRs as Bombers match season-high run total

ARLINGTON, Texas — If it seems like the Yankees’ mantra has been winning series since Memorial Day, that’s because the message has been spilling over their lips since before summer surfaced.

Now, when the Yankees need to do what they preached more than ever, they are hoping to use that recipe to eke their way past the Red Sox and cop the AL East title.

“That’s been our goal from Day 1,” Aaron Judge said of winning the AL East for the first time in five seasons. “If we keep playing our game, good things will happen.”

Should Gary Sanchez and Judge continue to flex biceps as big and strong as dock rope the way they did Sunday in a 16-7 beating of the Rangers in front of 31,349 at Globe Life Park, the Yankees might be able to come from behind and catch their blood rivals.

The Yankees’ sixth win in eight games gave them a third straight series victory, and coupled with the Red Sox losing to the Rays, the Yankees are 3 ½ lengths out with 20 games to play. The Yankees also lead the Twins by 3 ½ games in the race for the first of two AL wild-card tickets.

Sanchez and Judge each homered twice to lead an 18-hit assault that tied the season high for hits in a nine-inning game. The 16 runs also tied a season high. Judge raised his home-run total to 41 with blasts in the fourth and sixth innings. The second was a bolt to center measured at 462 feet and accounted for a third RBI that lifted Judge’s total to 90. Sanchez homered in the first and eighth, with the second one stretching the measuring tape to 461 feet. He has 30 homers and 83 RBIs.

The walk Judge drew in the second inning was the 107th of the season and set the MLB record for free passes by a rookie.

“Forty-one is amazing, but we have other guys who continue to swing the bat as well,’’ Sanchez said.

Those others consisted of Didi Gregorius, who went 4-for-4 and drove in four runs, Brett Gardner (2-for-5), whose two-run triple ignited a six-run fourth inning, and Austin Romine, who went 3-for-5.

“At this time of the season, you need to win series,” said manager Joe Girardi, whose club took three of four from the Red Sox in The Bronx and two of three from the Orioles in Baltimore and the Rangers here. “If we want to accomplish what we want to accomplish, we need to do that.’’

The only smudge on the victory was starter Jordan Montgomery lasting only 3 ¹/3 innings in which he gave up three runs, three hits and walked four.

Otherwise, the afternoon was a hitting orgy.

“Those games are a lot of fun to be a part of,” Gardner said. “It was a big series win for us.”

Next up for the Yankees are three games against the Rays at Citi Field beginning Monday night. Then it’s the Orioles for four and the Twins for three in The Bronx. The final trip of the season takes the Yankees to Toronto from Sept. 22-24. A makeup game against the Royals is set for Sept. 25 at home, and the season finishes with three with the Rays and three versus the Blue Jays, also at Yankee Stadium.

“We are definitely close enough that we can catch up to the Red Sox,” said Gardner, knowing the Yankees are done playing them. “I don’t worry about what they do. I worry about what we do. I feel if we play the best baseball we are capable of playing, we will catch them. Keep on playing good baseball and winning series.” george.king@nypost.com