In what’s been the first sign of the New York Yankees snapping out of their two-and-a-half month malaise, they swept the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, and did it without their hottest hitter for the entire series.

Giancarlo Stanton has been taking longer than expected to “recover” from playing defense in three straight games against the Minnesota Twins. He logged one at-bat this weekend. The Yanks were also without Cody Bellinger on Saturday, but managed to score 12 runs in a comeback win.

On Sunday, they did it again. After digging themselves in a hole and coughing up the lead because of two errors, the Yankees’ offense turned it on and scored five unanswered runs to win 8-4. Former Cardinal Paul Goldschmidt, in what was his first appearance of the series as he’s dealt with a knee issue, drove in the final insurance run in the top of the ninth after logging three hits. Luke Weaver shut the door with 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

Yankees’ sweep of Cardinals has fans sucked back in to playoff hopes

That capped the most satisfying three days for the Yankees since the month of May. And it was a complete team effort. The pitching staff picked up the bats when the offense couldn’t cash in on more opportunities Friday night. The bats picked up Max Fried on Saturday. The pitching staff and the offense worked in tandem on Sunday to lift the defense, and they did it with a bit of a skeleton crew.

Ben Rice and Jose Caballero played leading roles over the weekend. Rice finished with three runs scored, five hits, seven RBI and three walks. Caballero went 5-for-11 with four runs scored, an RBI and four stolen bases. Jasson Dominguez played in all three games and had an RBI in each. Ryan McMahon hit his first homer as a Yankee on Saturday. Anthony Volpe has continued to flash the leather.

Are the fruits of Brian Cashman’s trade deadline labor starting to come together? Has Aaron Boone’s lineup changes/flexibility awakened what’s felt like a stale 75 days? Has each individual finally looked around the clubhouse and said “you know what? I’m going to make it happen today”?

While the Cardinals are not the most formidable opponent, they’ve certainly held their own this year while the Yankees have been downright bad on the road (outside of defeating the usual suspects in Kansas City, Anaheim, Seattle and the A’s). More importantly, however, is that the Yankees’ backs were up against the wall, both regarding their prolonged slump and with their personnel. Stanton has been their best hitter and he couldn’t play. Bellinger was unexpectedly ruled out for Saturday. Max Fried put up another clunker of a start.

But Rice, Caballero, Dominguez and the entire bullpen were up for the task. Let’s also not forget the gutsy outings Luis Gil and Will Warren delivered on Friday and Sunday. What was even more impressive was their aggression on the base paths and their ability to quickly bounce back from mistakes/miscues, which is something we haven’t seen much of this year.

Perhaps this is the turning point for the Bombers. Perhaps this is what the front office and Boone have been waiting for. We definitely won’t hold our breath, but you’re lying to yourself if you didn’t walk away impressed after watching all of the action these last three days. Ride the momentum. The Red Sox’s lead in the Wild Card is only a half-game. The Jays’ division lead is 5.5 games. A two-game set against Tampa awaits before a weekend series against Boston. Now’s the time. And this showing couldn’t have arrived at a better juncture.

As Aaron Boone loves to say, “it’s all right in front of us.”