The Gaslamp Maulers were unveiled Sunday afternoon, leaving the Bronx Bombers dazed and me wondering if someone spiked my soft drink.

Home run.

Home run.

Home run.

That’s how the first inning began for Padres hitters against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, the trio of Fernando Tatis Jr., Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado launching a much-needed series-clinching win, 4-3, on a muggy afternoon in the East Village.

The Padres will want to reprise those powerful swings should they reach the playoffs.

Home run power matters more in October.

San Diego’s lack of it last fall contributed to a first-round playoff exit in Chicago.

This year, the Padres have gone long far more often, an essential development for a team that needs improvement from starting pitchers outside of Sunday’s winner Michael King and Walker Buehler.

A season after their popgun crew hit just 152 home runs to land 28th of 30 teams, the Padres have exceeded that total by seven with 19 games still to go.

The improved longball game extends deeper in the lineup, bringing rewards such as No. 6 hitter Luis Campusano’s second-deck blast Sunday, off Cole in the seventh inning.

The pull shot that expanded a 3-0 lead stood as the game-winner and made it 159 home runs this season, a hefty gain that has the Padres 19th in home runs despite Petco Park playing larger than most ballparks do.

“Thank God,” Tatis said of the offense’s longball success. “We definitely need it. Especially in this ballpark.”

The surprise Sunday wasn’t that any of three Padres veterans homered off Cole early on.

He’d allowed 11 longballs in 95 innings this season, although just two came in his prior seven starts.

It wasn’t shocking that the outburst came so soon.

The first inning is often the best time to ambush a pitcher, especially an ace.

While Cole brought his normal mid-to-upper 90s velocity to the mound, he wasn’t pinpointing his pitches.

Tatis lauded the Padres’ tactical approach of getting off firm swings at the game’s outset.

“The first inning, everybody’s finding the groove, trying to lock in,” said the leadoff man, who Sunday reached the 20-home run plateau for the fifth year in a row despite suffering through the longest home run drought of his career to begin this season.

“So, whoever misses first is going to lose. After that first inning, we saw why he is one of the best pitchers in the world.”

Soon after King dismissed a Yankees trio in just 10 pitches, the home run barrage through Cole’s 10th pitch prompted Yankees manager Aaron Boone and his infielders to huddle around Cole, only for Padres cleanup man Ty France to hammer Cole’s second pitch to the wall where center fielder Spencer Jones gloved it.

Jackson Merrill made it five straight rockets, testing Jones with a swerving line drive struck harder than France’s 396-foot drive.

Jones caught it. Cole settled in.

But the Padres had enough cushion to claim their first series victory in the last five tries.

Boone singled out Tatis’ six-pitch at-bat as crucial to the bombastic sequence.

Tatis did well to throttle down and clock Cole’s fat curveball over the right-field wall for his 20th home run.

He’d seen four fastballs, each one hotter than 95 miles per hour.

“It was a great at-bat,” Tatis said. “He challenged me with a couple of fastballs. I found a way to foul them off. When I saw that curveball, I decided to pop it off, and the barrel just came through it.”

Cronenworth summoned one of his best swings as a big leaguer.

The lefty’s drive of an outside fastball held true instead of slicing foul, clearing the short wall in left for the 32-year-old’s first opposite-field home run in the big leagues.

Machado got off one of his better swings this year in sending Cole’s 97-mph pitch for his 26th home run.

The tee shot knuckled as it climbed above the outfield before clearing the center-field wall and flying into a bullpen screen.

Machado woofed at his teammates as he headed toward first base.

Tatis was ready for the trivia question afterward.

Proudly, he told reporters that the only other time the Padres hit three consecutive home runs to start a game was in 1987, when lefties Tony Gwynn, Marvell Wynne and John Kruk connected in Mission Valley.

Key difference:

Where the ’87 Padres never got into the playoff race and finished 20 games under .500, the current Padres sit just half a game behind the Diamondbacks for the final wild-card spot.

The two teams will meet in San Diego for three games to close the season.

“It’s gonna be must-watch TV,” Tatis said. “Let’s see how it goes.”

If the power surge continues, final-series success may not be necessary.