For seven innings Sunday, the Yankees lineup looked like it was missing a three-time MVP.

It had been exactly one week since Aaron Judge last played, and it is going to be many more weeks until he plays again because of a stress fracture in his first right rib.

But the games continue without him and Sunday’s was moving along without much life from Yankees hitters, threatening to waste a fine day from Cam Schlittler and the bullpen.

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Turns out the Yankees were just saving their best for last.

Cody Bellinger delivered a go-ahead blast in the eighth inning before the Yankees piled on from there, leading to a 6-1 win over the Red Sox at a sold-out Yankee Stadium.

“Obviously, Aaron being out is such a huge loss — even just having that name in the lineup is such a huge presence,” Bellinger said. “Ultimately, we all got to lean on each other. We still have a really talented team. We got a lot of athletic guys and we can win in many different ways.

“We’re going to have to fight. Today was a good day to get going.”

After Red Sox reliever Justin Slaten struck out the first two batters of the eighth, Bellinger — arguably the most valuable all-around Yankees player this season — clobbered his ninth home run to break a 1-1 tie.

That marked the first of five straight batters to reach base, including an RBI single from Trent Grisham and a three-run homer from Jazz Chisholm Jr. against lefty Joe La Sorsa to give David Bednar extra breathing room in the ninth.

Fernando Cruz, Brent Headrick, Tim Hill and Bednar combined for 3 ¹/₃ scoreless innings in relief of Schlittler as the Yankees (38-26) split the two-game series with the Red Sox (27-36) and moved into a virtual first-place tie with the Rays atop the AL East.

“It’s tough to lose an MVP, but he’ll be back soon and I expect the other guys to be able to come through when it matters most, like today,” Schlittler said.

Facing his hometown team that he dominated in the AL wild-card series clincher last October, Schlittler was not quite as overpowering but still plenty good as he held the Red Sox to one run across 5 ²/₃ innings, with his stuff ticking back up from his prior start.

The only problem for the Yankees was that Red Sox lefty Ranger Suarez was even better, holding them to one run across 6 ¹/₃ innings before his bullpen let him down.

Paul Goldschmidt, who has stepped up in Giancarlo Stanton’s absence and will be asked to continue to do so without Judge, put the Yankees up 1-0 in the fifth inning when he sliced a single to score José Caballero, who had doubled off Suarez.

But the Red Sox tied it the sixth, when Willson Contreras smoked an RBI double off the base of the left field wall, with Anthony Volpe’s relay throw home going well up the line to allow Ceddanne Rafaela to score from first base.

The Yankees had a few other opportunities to cash in against Suarez, but in two of them, Volpe made the last out with runners in scoring position — the bases loaded in the fourth inning and a man on second in the sixth.

But the Yankees finally came alive in the eighth to head out on a road trip against the Guardians and Blue Jays in style. After Bellinger’s home run, Amed Rosario and Grisham had back–to-back singles, Volpe walked and then Chisholm — who had struck out in each of his first three at-bats — cleaned things up with a three-run blast while using Judge’s bat.

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“That’s the best thing about baseball,” Chisholm said. “You know you got a couple at-bats a game and coming down to the last one, you never know in baseball, he might leave you something down the middle for you to hit and help you with your day and probably help your team win.”