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 when it became obvious that control was a problem for Boston’s Cam Booser.

The left-hander began the inning 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. Reeling, Booser now had to figure out how to deal with Juan Soto and Judge, the most productive offensive duo in baseball.

He 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.