PHILADELPHIA – The Yankees have emerged from the trade deadline as the hottest team in baseball.

A road trip that began in devastating fashion Friday night in Boston, when they served up their latest candidate for worst loss of the year to fall further into a 10-23 skid, finished with a resurgence.

It was culminated by a sweep of the team that began the series with the best record in baseball, as the Yankees beat the Phillies 6-5 for their fifth straight win on Wednesday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.

DJ LeMahieu, who has essentially been relegated to reserve duty, took advantage of a start by putting together his biggest game of the season, driving in all six runs with a grand slam and two-run double.

That staked the Yankees (65-45) out to a 6-3 lead before they hung on late as the Phillies (65-43) chipped away at the deficit.

Tommy Kahnle escaped a seventh-inning jam when Alex Verdugo caught Austin Hays’ fly ball to left field while banging into the wall before Mark Leiter Jr. – who allowed a run on a one-hopper to the right side that Gleyber Torres likely should have made – left the bases loaded with a strikeout of Brandon Marsh.

Then Clay Holmes, who fell victim to soft contact Tuesday night while blowing a one-run lead in the ninth inning of a 12-inning win, survived the final frame this time.

He gave up a leadoff single to Kyle Schwarber, but got Hays to fly out to the warning track and Bryce Harper to ground into a double play to end it.

The Yankees returned to 20 games over .500 for the first time since they were 54-34 on July 3, and remained a half-game behind the Orioles for first place in the AL East with Tuesday’s trade deadline now in the rearview mirror.

“I liked what we had before we made the moves and I know we’ve improved since these moves,” GM Brian Cashman said shortly before first pitch Wednesday. “I think we have a really good team already and it will get better over the course of time when certain guys come back from the IL. And then think with the imports too we got better.”

Nestor Cortes, whose name came up in trade discussions in the days leading up to his start, retired the first nine batters he faced Wednesday on the way to his best start since July 5.

The left-hander, who entered the game having allowed 15 runs across 13 ⅓ innings in his last three starts, gave three runs across 5 ⅓ innings against the Phillies.