The Yankees opened the second half of the season with a full-blown COVID-19 crisis, which includes the loss of Aaron Judge.

Judge was placed on the COVID-19 injured list prior to Friday’s game against the Red Sox, along with Gio Urshela and Kyke Higashioka. They joined Nestor Cortes Jr., Jonathan Loaisiga and Wandy Peralta, who went on the IL on Thursday.

That left the Yankees with a makeshift roster in The Bronx against the first-place Red Sox, a day after the rivals had a game postponed due to the Yankees’ outbreak.

“Look, that’s our reality right now,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “We’ve got to make the best of it.”

Their starting lineup included Chris Gittens at first base, as Luke Voit was placed on the 10-day IL with a left knee bone bruise. Gittens entered the game with just 10 games of major league experience.

Trey Amburgey also made his major league debut, starting in right field. The 26-year-old is in his eighth professional season.

The decision to play Friday’s game following Thursday’s postponement came from the commissioner’s office after contact tracing involving members of both organizations was done Thursday and Friday.

MLB also announced that Thursday’s game would be made up as part of a split doubleheader on Aug. 17 at Yankee Stadium. The first game will be played at 1:05 p.m. and the originally scheduled game will start at 7:05 p.m.

As of Friday afternoon, no new cases had come up around the league. The possibility of a larger outbreak was feared because Judge was at the MLB All-Star Game in Denver on Tuesday.

Friday’s game was the Yankees’ first in a stretch of seven of nine games against first-place Boston in what figures to be a make-or-break time for the staggering team.

On the loss of Judge and Urshela, Boone said, “They are two great players [and] really important to what we do.”

The Yankee also called up outfielder Greg Allen, catcher Rob Brantly and infielder Hoy Park from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. All the repacements will be relied upon with the players on the COVID-19 IL out for what figures to be at least a week — and in some cases, likely more than 10 days.

The Yankees also had an outbreak in May. Those were all breakthrough cases, meaning those who tested positive had been vaccinated, but that’s not the case this time.

The Yankees said not all of the three cases that were confirmed Friday were breakthroughs, so at least one player was not vaccinated.

It’s a rough way to begin a second half that came after a disappointing first half, which left the Yankees eight games back of the Red Sox in the AL East and 4 ¹/₂ games out of the second wild-card spot entering Friday.

If they are going to get back into contention, some unlikely faces will have to play a part in it.

Gerrit Cole wasn’t ruling that out.

“I think, ironically, I go back to some comments from when I got questions earlier in the year about how good this team looks on paper,’’ Cole said. “Well, paper is paper. The game is the game.”

And that’s where the Yankees have struggled, from a 6-11 start to the season to the disastrous loss to the Astros to close out the first half, when they blew a five-run lead in the ninth inning.

“Obviously, we know we’re dealing with some adversity and a tough situation,’’ Boone said. “We’ll try and embrace that as best we can.”