On a third straight day with a 6-foot-7, 282-pound-sized hole in their lineup — and much bigger concerns about how long Aaron Judge’s absence would last than what was happening on the field — the Yankees at least salvaged a series.

Ryan McMahon made sure Carlos Rodón’s strong start did not go to waste, roping a go-ahead single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to lift the Yankees to a 2-1 win over the Guardians on Thursday afternoon in The Bronx.

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As they awaited word on Judge’s diagnosis — which was announced late Thursday night as a stress fracture in his first right rib that will likely keep him out at least two months — the Yankees (37-25) had more serious worries than potentially getting swept by the Guardians (36-28).

But unlike Judge’s injury, the Yankees were at least in control of their own destiny Thursday and did just enough to secure the win.

“It’s tough when the best player in the world and the best player on our team is down,” said Rodón, who threw six innings of one-run ball in his sharpest start of the season. “But it’s one of those things where we have to go out there and win. Obviously we all want him in the lineup, but for us, we just got to go out there and compete and win today. That’s our mindset.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr., who tied the game earlier with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning off Slade Cecconi, got the winning rally started in the seventh when he drew a one-out walk against reliever Codi Heuer. With two outs, he stole second and took third on the next pitch, a wild pitch, before scoring on McMahon’s single through the right side.

“I was just trying to make sure I gave us a chance and put a ball in play,” McMahon said.

Brent Headrick, Fernando Cruz and David Bednar each threw a scoreless inning of relief to make sure the two runs stood up as the Yankees won for the seventh time in their past 10 games.

After the Guardians reached both Cam Schlittler and Gerrit Cole in the first two games of the series, Rodón proved to be a much stiffer test. The left-hander scattered just two singles and three walks while striking out seven in his fifth start back from the injured list.

“He was back to himself today,” Chisholm said. “I just felt like he was out there with his swagger. He was that bulldog that we always call him.”

Against a Guardians team that entered the day with the third-lowest swing-and-miss rate in the majors (9.4 percent), Rodón racked up 18 whiffs on 47 swings, nine of them on his four-seam fastball that got up to 97 mph.

“I’m happy with the swing-and-miss,” Rodón said. “Getting ahead is the No. 1 thing and just trying to get outs, the strikeouts come. The goal is to go out there and get as many zeroes up on the board for our team, and let the boys go out there and bang.”

Rodón did not allow a hit until the fourth inning, and it soon turned into the Guardians’ first run.

José Ramirez led off the frame with a single, stole second, then tagged up to third on a fly ball to center field. That allowed him to score on Stuart Fairchild’s seeing-eye single through the left side for the 1-0 Guardians lead.

The Yankees quickly answered in the bottom of the frame, though they wasted a chance to do more than just tie the game.

Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger got the rally started with back-to-back singles, then each moved up 90 feet on a double steal. Chisholm followed with a sacrifice fly to left field that tied things up 1-1.

Nevertheless, Bellinger was thrown out on the play trying to tag up to third — getting there in time but over-sliding the bag after having to avoid Ramirez, who was in the baseline to receive the throw.

Max Schuemann, starting in right field in place of Judge, made a pair of nice plays defensively to help out his pitchers.

He made a diving grab to end the top of the second inning, robbing Steven Kwan of a hit, then made a jumping catch just in front of the wall to end the seventh inning, stranding a man on first with Headrick on the mound.

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“You’re always going to miss an Aaron Judge,” McMahon said. “But it’s on us. We got to hold it down, find ways to win ballgames.”