Aaron Judge helps bring the Yankees season back from the dead in a stunning comeback in Game 3

For better or worse, the Yankees so often go the way Aaron Judge goes.

And so it took just one memorable swing to come back from the dead, courtesy of their captain, who performed CPR to revive their season and his own post-season legacy.

In a game, the Yankees once trailed by five runs in the third inning while staring at elimination. Judge crushed a towering three-run shot from the foul pole in left field to tie the game in the fourth inning.

The signature playoff moment that Judge had missed opened the floodgates, as Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed that up an inning later with a home run of his own, giving the Yankees their first lead of the series and sending them on their way to a 9-6 victory over the Blue Jays in Game 3 of the ALDS on Tuesday night in The Bronx.

“I know we got there early, but the energy in that dugout and what we brought was we knew we were going to go out there and just leave everything on the field,” Judge said. “We knew we were going to try to get back there. And when we got a chance to tie it up like that, I liked our chances going in, especially with our bullpen and our guys down there and the way our offense was kind of rolling.”

On a night when the Blue Jays raced out to an early 6-1 lead against Carlos Rodón, the Yankees bullpen delivered 6 ²/₃ shutout innings to extend the season and make Judge’s moonshot matter. Fernando Cruz (four outs), Camilo Doval (three outs), Tim Hill (four outs) and Devin Williams (four outs) provided the bridge for David Bednar, who made a five-out save.

Judge’s dramatic equalizer, which sent the sellout crowd of 47,399 into pandemonium, made for an all-round standout match for the potential third-time MVP. He went 3-for-4 with a double, home run, walk, four RBIs and three runs, and added a great diving catch in the top of the fifth at a time when the Blue Jays had the go-ahead run at second base.

“It was the player’s best performance of the game,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It was special when, obviously needless to say, we had our backs against the wall and sometimes found ourselves in a Game 3 situation.”

Just like that, there’s a path for the Yankees, who will send Cam Schlittler to the mound for Game 4. The Blue Jays, meanwhile, will throw a bullpen game on Wednesday after having to use six relievers to get through Tuesday after Shane Bieber lasted just 2 ²/₃ innings.

If the Yankees want to force a winner-take-all Game 5 in Toronto, they will have to add to their 3-0 record in potential elimination games this postseason.

“Tonight was special, but there is still more work to be done,” Judge said. “Hopefully we have more cool moments like this for the rest of the postseason. We have another big game [Wednesday] night. Maybe we can do something special [Wednesday] tonight and talk to you all one more time before we head north again.

Judge, who entered this postseason 8-for-18 with seven hits and one double, had been given a chance for a signature moment earlier this series in Game 1, but he struck out with the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth inning of a game where the Yankees trailed 2-0. The missed opportunity, which gave way to a 10-1 loss, seemed to linger for the rest of the series until he walked back to the plate in the fourth inning of Game 3, trailing 6-3 but with two men on and one out.

Hard-throwing righty Louis Varland took an 0-2 lead before unleashing a 100.7 mph fastball that turned on Judge and sent it into the October night. He paused at home plate to watch it fly and made sure it went well before turning his bat and spinning the bases to a hero’s ovation as he tied the score at 6-6.

“I think a few ghosts there helped keep that fair,” Judge said, building on a rally that started with the wind helping Austin Wells reach after a dropped pop-up by third baseman Addison Barger — the second Blue Jays errors of the night, both of which led to runs.

Chisholm also got Varland deep in the fifth inning, his on a 99 mph fastball up the middle that he connected on to put the Yankees up 7-6.

In 22 innings in this series before Chisholm’s lined shot, the Blue Jays had led after 21 of them, the other being a 0-0 tie after the top of the first in Game 2.

And the 6-1 lead the Blue Jays held after two and a half innings in Game 3 seemed daunting except to those who had been on the wrong side of a crushed 5-0 lead against the Dodgers in the decisive Game 5 of the World Series last October.

“My thought is it’s happened to us before,” Chisholm said, “so why couldn’t it happen to them?”