But the lead did not look any sturdier than Frazier’s swing did as the Astros loaded the bases with two outs in the third after Sabathia walked George Springer and Jose Altuve around a single by Alex Bregman. That brought up Carlos Correa, who had homered and doubled to account for both Astros runs on Saturday.

But Sabathia’s 0-1 cutter got in on Correa’s hands, and he popped out to end the threat.

“He likes to get his hands extended,” said Sabathia, who had the first scoreless outing of his playoff career. “I was trying to get something in on him and made a good enough pitch where he popped up to short.”

In the fourth, it was Judge’s turn to thwart the Astros.

Judge, who had stolen a two-run home run from Francisco Lindor in a 1-0 win over the Indians in Game 3 of their division series, brought the crowd to its feet again — by leaving his feet again.

This time he crashed into the wall to catch a drive by Yulieski Gurriel to begin the fourth inning. Judge slammed into the wall with his left shoulder, which he had been treating with ice for after games for much of the second half of the season. After the catch, he tumbled to the warning track, the crowd roared and Sabathia threw both arms into the air.

“There’s not much give in any wall,” Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner said. “It may help if you hit it somewhere where there’s not any stands behind them, but that pad is only a couple of inches thick, and right behind that is not moving, even as big as he is. Even though it’s padded, it’s a pretty good hit he took.”

In the fifth, Judge came to Sabathia’s aid again, racing in to make a diving catch of Cameron Maybin’s liner, again lifting the crowd off its seats.