Yankees sweep Red Sox behind Aaron Judge masterpiece

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Pause it! And we aren’t talking about the baseball season. Based on the last three Red Sox-Yankees games this weekend at Yankee Stadium, the best rivalry in baseball is on furlough due to a wide gulf in talent for teams that are headed in distinctly different directions. To qualify as a rivalry, every game needs …

Pause it!

And we aren’t talking about the baseball season.

Based on the last three Red Sox-Yankees games this weekend at Yankee Stadium, the best rivalry in baseball is on furlough due to a wide gulf in talent for teams that are headed in distinctly different directions.

To qualify as a rivalry, every game needs to be competitive and draw emotions from each dugout. Those two ingredients were sorely missing this weekend in The Bronx, where the Yankees completed a three-game sweep via a come-from-behind 9-7 victory at an empty Stadium on Sunday night.

Further fueling the pause movement is the fact the Yankees have won six straight, and 11 of the past 12, against the Red Sox. The Yankees’ sixth straight win was fueled by Aaron Judge’s two homers that included a two-run blast in the eighth inning after DJ LeMahieu’s two-out single scored Mike Tauchman from second and tied the score, 7-7.

“A lot of really good things. We had to scratch and claw. I felt like we were chasing all night,’’ said Aaron Boone, whose club trailed, 2-0, before batting in the first and 7-6 heading into the home eighth. “Tauchman gets on base with a walk and steals second and DJ does DJ, and Judge got a pitch ahead in the count and finished it off. And a good job by the pen holding them down. A lot of good things happened tonight.”

With homers in a career-high five straight games, Judge looks like what he has always looked like growing up: the biggest kid in Little League.

“I really think he is on a mission right now,’’ Boone said of his No. 2 hitter, who erased a 2-0 deficit with a three-run homer in the second and repeated the act with a two-run blast off Matt Barnes in the eighth that sent the Yankees to their sixth straight win and hiked the best record in baseball to 7-1.

The downer in the win was a second subpar outing by starter James Paxton, who admitted his fastball isn’t where it should be and was hurt by two fly balls that should have been caught by center fielder Aaron Hicks, but went for doubles in the first and third innings when the breeze took balls further than usual and the early sky posed a problem seeing the ball. In his third major league start in left field, Miguel Andujar committed a three-base error in the third inning on a routine single by Xander Bogaerts that contributed to a pair of runs. Bogaerts homered in the first off Paxton and in the fifth against Mike King.

“I’m concerned. Trying to do everything I can to figure out what is going on,’’ Paxton said of the dip in velocity. He gave up five runs (three earned) and seven hits in three innings after not getting an out in the second inning of his first start. “Just going to take some time to build it back up.’’

With a lineup loaded with power, a two-run deficit isn’t much of a hole. However, when Barnes retired Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela to start the eighth, the Yankees were down to their last four outs. As it turned out they didn’t require the final three thanks Tauchman’s eye and speed, LeMahieu’s clutch bat and Judge’s brute strength. And adding in a big serving of confidence oozing out of the Yankees’ dugout.

“Just one of those games we knew were going to push in front at some point,’’ said LeMahieu, whose single up the middle scored Tauchman from second to tie the score, 7-7. Three pitches later Judge crushed a 2-0 offering.

As for the winning three from the Red Sox at home, the Yankees took it in stride.

“Tough grind out game against the Red Sox like it usually is, but some guys came up with some clutch hits and we came out with the win,’’ said Judge, who delivered the biggest hit of the season and accentuated the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry is on pause.