As I’ve been doing with these four-game series, I’m breaking them up at the halfway mark, so below are my thoughts on the first two games.

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Now, on to the games.

Monday night it was the Yankees’ offense finally doing something productive, and Tuesday night, it was all about the pitching.

Add it up and it was a pair of victories by the scores of 9-5 and 3-2 over the AL Central-leading White Sox, and despite a lineup that is woefully inadequate now that Cody Bellinger will be out most likely until September thanks to his hamstring injury, the Yankees are finding ways to win as this was their 11th victory in 15 games.

Bellinger got hurt Saturday night and said he felt pretty good Sunday, but then his MRI results were revealed Monday and they showed a Grade-2 strain. Bad news, four to six weeks and you know damn well it’s going to be on the long side.

So now, there’s no Bellinger, no Aaron Judge, and no Giancarlo Stanton for the foreseeable future, and you have to believe the nine-run performance Monday is going to be an outlier.

Look at the guys in this lineup using on-base percentage where .320 is considered league average: Austin Wells (.263); Jazz Chisholm (.299); Jose Caballero (.287); Ryan McMahon (.271); Jasson Dominguez (.276); Amed Rosario (.278). The only regulars who are near the league average or above are Ben Rice (.359); Anthony Volpe (.341); Paul Goldschmidt (.319); and Trent Grisham (.319).

The numbers are absurd and this team is going to need to pitch great on most nights if it hopes to keep winning and catch the Rays, and they’ve done that. In the last 15 games the team ERA of 3.27 is seventh-best in MLB, they rank fourth in batting average against (.219), WHIP (1.150), and strikeouts per nine (10.0), and they have stranded 77.6% of the opposing base runners which is seventh.

The starters have generally been excellent, but the bullpen - much-maligned early in the season - has been lights out. But the offense, whoa, that’s another story.

Could Spencer Jones help? Well, Aaron Boone would need to start playing him for that possibility to emerge. Jones has taken Bellinger’s spot on the roster, but in two of the three games the opposition started a lefty so Max Schuemann got the start in left field. I understand what Boone is doing with the platoon, but isn’t now the time to let Jones play every day and figure out who he is?

Yes, it’s going to be tough against lefties and thus far he’s just 3-for-15 in his very small MLB career sample size, but he’s never going to improve if he doesn’t get more at bats against southpaws. He’s by far a superior outfielder to Schuemann; in fact right now he’s probably the best fielding outfielder on the team.

Let the kid play. If nothing else, if Brian Cashman is thinking about trading him next week, showcase him in Chicago. Give him a chance to show something and if he has a good week, maybe he becomes a more valuable asset to dangle.

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➤ Nine runs! A veritable offensive explosion as the Yankees produced 10 hits and went 5-for-12 with runners in scoring position and that doesn’t even count the two runs they scored on productive outs on ground outs by Anthony Volpe and Spencer Jones. The Yankees manufacturing runs, imagine that.

➤ Max Fried’s second start was another pitch count deal but unlike his first, this one wasn’t great. He reached his 65-pitch limit at the end of the third and Aaron Boone pulled him with the Yankees down 3-0. All the runs, as well as half his pitches, came in an ugly first inning when he gave up four hits and a walk, the big blows an RBI single by Colson Montgomery and an RBI triple by Braden Montgomery. There were two more base runners in the second but he stranded them, and a walk in the third was wiped out by a double play.

➤ From there, the Yankees had to use seven relievers to cover the final six innings, but the only one who didn’t perform was Tim Hill and that has become a common theme for him lately. He gave up a double to Miguel Vargas and an RBI single by Colson Montgomery who is rapidly becoming a major pain in the ass for the Yankees. The only other White Sox run came in the ninth against useless Camilo Doval but that wasn’t on him as Jose Caballero and Volpe both made errors, Volpe dropping a pop fly that would have ended the game. Boone got nervous with two men on so he called on David Bednar for the final out. And that was such a waste thanks to Volpe. Thankfully Bednar only threw five pitches.

➤ The Yankees did nothing against Noah Schultz in the first three innings but in the fourth they took a 4-3 lead. Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt walked, Jasson Dominguez singled to load the bases and Volpe hit an RBI grounder. Jazz Chisholm followed with a two-run double, and Jones added an RBI grounder

➤ The go-ahead run came in the seventh as Amed Rosario led off with a double, took third on an errant pickoff throw by the catcher, and it looked like he wasn’t going to get home as Ali Sanchez and Max Schuemann made outs. But Rice came through with a clutch RBI single. Rice now has 20 go-ahead RBIs and nine of those have been eventual game-winners, both totals leading the AL.

➤ And then a rather shocking four-run burst in the eighth put it away against one of the White Sox best relievers, Sean Newcomb. Singles by Dominguez, Volpe and Chisholm produced a run and then Sanchez drilled a three-run homer, the first of his major league career in his 397th plate appearance.

➤ This was the Yankees’ 27th come-from-behind win which is tops in MLB and it was their 60th victory of the season.

➤ Outside of one weird inning where he could not find the strike zone and was in a big-time jam, Gerrit Cole was outstanding. He fired six scoreless innings with two walks and seven strikeouts and most of it was pretty easy. The exception was his 32-pitch odyssey in the fourth.

➤ Munetaka Murakami led off with a double, Vargas walked and after Cole retired Colson Montgomery and Andrew Benintendi, he walked Braden Montgomery to load the bases before inducing a flyout by Tristan Peters to escape unscathed. It felt like a miracle that he got out of that without giving up at least a run. He gave up a single in each of the fifth and sixth innings but Chicago couldn’t score.

➤ After two shutdown innings by Angel Chivilli and Brent Headrick, Bednar came in for the save and he saw his scoreless innings streak end at 24, and his scoreless appearance streak end at 21. In between two strikeouts, Braden Montgomery singled and with two outs Chase Meidroth crushed a two-run homer, but Bednar whiffed ex-Yankee Everson Pereira to end it.

➤ Apparently all the good offense in the first two games of the series was used up Monday because the Yankees put up a zero in eight innings. Their three runs came in the second off Anthony Kay and they held up.

➤ Dominguez and Grisham singled and a wild pitch moved them to second and third. Volpe then lofted a deep fly to left-center and Peters nearly made a great catch at the wall but the ball popped out. Dominguez scored, Grisham stopped at third and Volpe slid safely into second. Chisholm whiffed, but Schuemann lucked out with a chopper down the line that went over the third baseman’s head for a two-run double. That was it, but three was enough thanks to Cole.

➤ The Yankees are now 30-14 when their starting pitcher goes at least six innings, and their 35-23 road record in third-best in MLB.