JUDGE & FURY!

Yanks wallop Jays to stay 1 1/ 2 in front of Oakland Aaron returns — but b only in the field

The Yankees started off their homestand with a bang. The Bombers — with the help of a two-run single by Giancarlo Stanton (inset) — routed the Blue Jays in a game in which Aaron Judge saw some time in right field, though he can’t hit yet.

WHEN was the last time anywhere a standing ovation saluted … a defensive replacement?

More to the point, when was the last time Yankee Stadium felt so electric?

Certainly before July 26, when Aaron Judge fractured his right wrist and altered the trajectory of this Yankees season. So now that Judge has returned to the active roster, his cameo in the field Friday night highlighting his team’s 11-0 thumping of the terrible Blue Jays in the opener of this season’s final homestand, can the Yankees’ leaky ship be righted in time to avoid a season-ending, Bay Area beatdown?

“Pretty crazy,” Judge said of the standing O that greeted his jog to right field in the top of the eighth inning. “We’ve got the best fans in the world.”

“That was really nice, kind of the way it played out,” Aaron Boone said of inserting Judge, who has not yet been cleared to hit in major league games. “Almost the perfect scenario.”

Which began to mitigate the imperfections that have sucked considerable joy out of this strong Yankees season. Consider the exchange that took place recently on the “R2C2” podcast, hosted by Yankees veteran pitcher CC Sabathia and YES Network and ESPN broadcaster Ryan Ruocco. On Sept. 8, when the Yankees were 88-53, Ruocco said to Sabathia and their guest Luke Voit, “You guys are still whatever, 36, 37 games over .500.”

“It doesn’t even feel like it,” the sizzling sophomore first baseman Voit said.

“Thirty-six games over .500, it don’t feel like it, right?” the big lefty Sabathia agreed.

Right, and that’s due in large part to the extreme imbalance that the American League has achieved. The Yankees, on pace to win 100 games, own the AL’s third-best record — and lead the A’s by only a game and a half for home-field advantage in the Oct. 3 wild-card contest — and the Blue Jays (65-82), on pace to lose 90, can see five clubs below them. Of course, the AL giveth as well as taketh away, as the Jays didn’t put up much of a fight against Masahiro Tanaka, who enhanced his “I should start the wild-card game” candidacy with six shutout innings.

It’s also due to the Yankees’ relative struggles without Judge. While they went a respectable 25-20 during Judge’s time on the disabled list, they lost considerable ground to the Red Sox, who dominated that stretch to the tune of a 30-13 mark, and they saw the A’s creep up on them by going 28-15.

“I feel like we should [have] kind of [a] similar record to the Red Sox. I think we could be there,” Voit, who contributed a two-run double and two walks, said before the game. “We know we’re better than what we’ve been doing. I think it’s about to turn around here. I’m looking forward to how good this team can be.”

“It is what it is,” said Sabathia, who insisted the Yankees weren’t stressed or anxious about their typically excellent record ensuring them of so little. “Nobody’s in here feeling sorry for anybody. Go out and play the games. Finish the season and see what happens. But this is a really good team.”

Did they get better just by activating a bat-less Judge?

“Look, it’s Aaron Judge,” Boone said before the game. “I think guys will be excited knowing what he means to the guys. Hopefully it is something that his presence, being on the bench, maybe even getting into a game is something that can be something that uplifts a guy.”

Boone said afterward that Judge, whose next step will be facing live pitching, could be a full player by the end of this Yankees homestand on Sept. 23.

“I’m still healing,” Judge said following his half-return, and the Yankees are, too. By October, they all had best be feeling better, both physically and emotionally, or else this will go down as one of the worst best seasons in their history.