DETROIT — A whiff-a-thon broke out on Monday night at Comerica Park.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, their hitters were largely responsible. Fortunately for the Yankees, Luis Severino also played a key role in it and continued his late-season turnaround.

Severino generated a season-high eight strikeouts and 15 swings-and-misses across seven shutout innings to lead the Yankees to a 4-1 win over the Tigers.

It marked the second straight scoreless outing for Severino, who also tossed 6 ²/₃ scoreless innings against the Nationals last week.

Before the back-to-back encouraging starts, the pending free agent had posted a 7.98 ERA through his first 15 starts of the season — leading him to call himself the “worst pitcher in the game” just under a month ago.

“I’m getting better,” a clearly relieved Severino tried to deadpan before breaking into a laugh. “No, I feel really good. I’m working through everything that happened, getting better. Not letting all that stuff get to me right now. Just focus on the present and the games that we have.”

With better life on his fastball than he had shown of late, Severino scattered five hits while not walking a batter for only the fourth time this season. He completed seven innings for the first time since his final start of the 2022 regular season.

“That’s the guy I’ve watched for years,” said Aaron Judge, who homered in the seventh inning to snap an 0-for-17 skid. “Just impressive. Dominating the strike zone. When he has good fastball command and pounds the zone, he’s one of the best in the game.”

While neither the Tigers (59-72) nor the Nationals will be mistaken for juggernaut offenses, Severino had struggled to find any kind of success against offenses of any kind during his brutal stretch. His recent surge will certainly be put to the test this weekend against the Astros.

For now, though, the Yankees (63-68) were left feeling good for their popular clubhouse presence.

“He went through some tough times, some dark times within the season,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But he hasn’t stopped working. He knows he’s got a little bit of time left to go out there and finish like he’s capable of.”

In a battle between two of the least productive offenses in the majors, the Yankees struck out 16 times to the Tigers’ 10.

Tigers rookie right-hander Reese Olson was responsible for striking out 10 Yankees across 4 ¹/₃ innings. The first eight outs he recorded all came by way of the punchout.

The Yankees finally broke the scoreless tie in the fifth inning.

Judge walked and then scored all the way from first on Gleyber Torres’ double to the gap on Olson’s 100th and final pitch of the night.

Judge later had a more leisurely trot around the bases in the seventh inning, when he crushed his 29th home run of the year, before Gleyber Torres made it back-to-back with a 430-foot shot to make it 3-0.

The rest of the night belonged to Severino.

He allowed a pair of triples to Zack McKinstry but buckled down both times to keep his shutout intact. After McKinstry tripled with one out in the sixth inning (on a miscommunication between Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Judge in the gap), Severino got Riley Greene to hit a one-hopper to shortstop Anthony Volpe, whose throw home was scooped by Kyle Higashioka to tag out McKinstry.

A single later, Severino struck out Spencer Torkelson on a 99 mph fastball to escape the inning, which was met with a vintage scream and fist pump from the 29-year-old.

“He looked like he does when he’s at his best,” Higashioka said. “I think tonight, he was definitely at his best.”

But perhaps the best compliment came from future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera, who roped a line-drive single back at Severino in the second inning but later struck out against him in the seventh.

“He said, ‘You got nasty stuff,’ ” Severino said. “I said, ‘You almost killed me with that line drive.’ Just really fun to compete against him.”