NEW YORK — Aaron Judge ended the longest home run drought of his major league career in the loudest way possible Friday night.

With the New York Yankees facing a three-run deficit against the Boston Red Sox in the seventh inning, Judge clubbed a go-ahead grand slam for his major-league-leading 52nd home run of the season. The swat unleashed thunderous delirium at Yankee Stadium. MVP chants prompted Judge to emerge for a curtain call.

The blast was Judge’s eighth career grand slam. He had gone 16 games, 60 at-bats and 75 plate appearances since last homering on Aug. 25 against the Colorado Rockies.

The anticipation for the possibility began building earlier in the inning.

Red Sox right-hander Justin Slaten began the bottom of the seventh with full counts to Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo. Both times he walked the batter. Gleyber Torres followed with a single to score Volpe from second base for the Yankees’ first run of the night.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora then replaced Slaten with left-hander Cam Booser, who had to figure out how to deal with Juan Soto and Judge, the most productive offensive duo in baseball.

Booser chose to pitch around Soto, walking him on four pitches way out of the strike zone down and away to load the bases. With each ball, the decibel level reached a new height. By the fourth one, Yankee Stadium was in a frenzy. Soto flipped his bat. Judge strolled to the plate. Booser was in trouble.

Booser fell behind Judge with a cutter in the dirt and a fastball that appeared to be in the strike zone. Forced to attack Judge, Booser grooved a 96 mph fastball down the middle to Judge, who pounced and didn’t miss it.

The score held as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 5-4.

ATLANTA — The thought of Shohei Ohtani pitching in the playoffs is suddenly not impossible, even if it might still be unlikely.

Speaking Friday, a little over an hour after frontline starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow suffered another setback in his recovery from elbow tendinitis, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts left open the possibility of Ohtani being an option on the mound in October, saying it’s “not a 0 percent chance.”

Ohtani, who underwent a second repair of his right ulnar collateral ligament 12 months ago, has been throwing semiregular bullpen sessions and could progress to facing hitters in the near future. The likely plan had been for Ohtani to shut down his throwing program in October, then restart it relatively early in the offseason to prepare for his return as a two-way player in 2025.

Under another potential scenario, though, Ohtani would keep throwing, then could an option for the Dodgers in the later postseason rounds if they get there.

“Anything’s possible,” said Roberts, who had joined Dodgers front office members in squashing the idea when it came up in previous instances this season. “This is something that is a long-term play. We still have a lot of work to do to get to October and through October. I hope that’s on his mind, as far as motivation for his rehab. The odds of it coming to pass are very slim, but they’re not zero.”

The consideration — and the pivot in their thinking, however slight it might be — speaks to the uncertainty of the Dodgers’ rotation. Yoshinobu Yamamoto recently pitched in a major league game for the first time in about three months, striking out eight Chicago Cubs batters in four innings. Though the outing was encouraging, the Dodgers still have plenty of questions outside of Jack Flaherty.

The biggest uncertainty, once again, surrounds Glasnow, who has been out since Aug. 11 and seemed to be progressing toward a return. Glasnow was throwing in the Truist Park bullpen in order to prepare for a two- to three-inning simulated game in what was expected to be his last step before returning to the rotation.

It started off well, Roberts said, and then, as he approached his 25th throw, Glasnow felt discomfort around his elbow once again, prompting him to shut it down.

The Dodgers are uncertain about the next step, but Roberts readily acknowledged that time is quickly running out before the postseason.

“Obviously, it’s a setback,” Roberts said. “I don’t know what that means in terms of the coming days. I do know that we’re just gonna kind of reassess and see how he feels over the next couple days and see when we can pick up the throwing again.”

Joining Glasnow on the IL are Clayton Kershaw and Gavin Stone, both of whom are pushing to come back but also running short on time. Kershaw has been diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his left big toe, triggering pain every time he pushes off the rubber, and hasn’t thrown off a traditional mound. Stone, who had been arguably the Dodgers’ best starter this year, was shut down with shoulder inflammation on Sept. 6 and is merely playing catch at the moment.

That brings the Dodgers to Ohtani, who famously came out of the bullpen during last year’s World Baseball Classic to close out the championship-clinching game for Team Japan with a strikeout of then-teammate Mike Trout. Roberts said he hasn’t spoken to Ohtani about the possibility of pitching in the playoffs but might soon.

If Ohtani is open to it, it could be difficult for the Dodgers to resist the urge to use him.

“We all have to feel very confident that the buildup, that the stress of pitches, that he’ll be able to handle the cost benefit of him potentially doing something like that,” Roberts said. “We’d all have to be in lockstep, and it’s gotta make completely sense. Right now, for me, it’s just keeping his head focused on hitting, going through his rehab process. If that situation presents itself down the road — and, again, this is a long way down the road — then we can have that conversation.”

NEW YORK — The New York Yankees, with two-plus weeks left in the regular season, have a problem most teams would love: six healthy capable starting pitchers for five spots.

Last week, they solved it by bumping Nestor Cortes to the bullpen before rolling with a six-man rotation for the next turn. The plan was always to return to a five-man group after this week. This time, however, Cortes won’t be the odd man out. It will be Marcus Stroman, manager Aaron Boone announced Friday.

Boone said Stroman, who has logged all his 148⅓ innings this season as a starter, will be available out of the bullpen Sunday against Boston on regular rest five days after his start Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals.

Boone said “nothing is permanent” but hinted the Yankees would keep a five-man rotation for the next two turns. He said whether Stroman would stay in the bullpen for both turns — if the Yankees stick with a five-man rotation — hadn’t been decided.

“I would say it’s kind of fluid,” Boone said. “But it’s how I view it now.”

The Yankees signed the veteran Stroman to a two-year, $37 million contract with a vesting option for 2026. He has logged a 4.07 ERA in 28 starts without a trip to the injured list, though the Yankees pushed a start back last month to allow for him to work on his mechanics after two dreadful outings. He had a 3.29 ERA in 17 starts through June 28, but in keeping with his second-half struggles in recent years, he has posted a 5.47 ERA over his past 11 outings.

The right-hander held the Royals to three runs over 5⅓ innings Tuesday after the Texas Rangers roughed him up for five runs across 3⅔ innings Sept. 4.

“He’s one of the reasons we’re here,” Boone said. “He’s gone to the post for us. Taken all his starts. Won a lot of ballgames for us. I think one of the reasons we have the chance to get to the postseason is some of the consistency of our starting pitching. And on balance, he’s done a really good job for us.

“And as I told him, one of the reasons that we’re in this position now. I feel like all of our starters have done a good job of giving us a chance to win a lot of ballgames. It starts with them and he’s been right in the middle of all that.”

Stroman has made eight relief appearances totaling 13⅓ innings over his 10-year major league career. He last pitched as a reliever a year ago, making two relief appearances for the Chicago Cubs last September. He threw two scoreless innings in his first outing before giving up an unearned run in extra innings the next day.

Boone said he informed Stroman on Thursday he was returning to the bullpen.

“Stro’s been so good for us and so good in the room,” Boone said. “He’s all about that team in there and all about the guys in there. So [his] message to me is, ‘Whatever you need and I’ll be ready to go.’ I think he just wants to be part of a winner. And as much as we’ve enjoyed him being here with us and becoming a really important part of our room, that room has really loved him back. He’s been a real joy for me to get to manage, frankly.”

Cortes was the other obvious candidate for the demotion. The left-hander said he didn’t know if he would return to the bullpen after limiting the Red Sox to one run over five innings Thursday.

The start came after he tossed 4⅓ scoreless innings out of the bullpen against the Cubs on Sept. 7. After the relief appearance, Cortes admitted he was “upset” with the team’s decision to move him to the bullpen, calling himself the team’s “workhouse” this season.

“I’m just trying to go out there and throw up as many zeroes as I can,” Cortes said Thursday night. “I know last week I might have come off like I was asking for too much, but I got my point across, and at the end of the day, I’m going to do whatever this team needs for me to do to win.”

That could eventually mean pitching out of the bullpen again — either in September or in October when playoff rotations shrink to three or four starters.