Astros Manager A.J. Hinch, on the other hand, gave an emphatic denial to any sign-stealing allegations.

“It made me laugh because it’s ridiculous,” he said. “And had I known that it would take something like that to set off the Yankees or any other team, we would have practiced it in spring training. It apparently works, even when it doesn’t happen. So to me, I understand the gamesmanship.”

After hitting his second home run of the series on Thursday, Correa also brushed off the subject. “Not everything is about tipping” pitches, he said. “We can hit, too.”

On Thursday, a regression in the sharpness of Tanaka’s best two pitches — a split-finger fastball and a slider — was his biggest downfall. He walked Robinson Chirinos to lead off the third inning and coughed up a single to Josh Reddick. Springer, who was 4 for 33 this postseason entering that at-bat, then clobbered a flat splitter over the plate for a three-run homer.

It was the type of key hit, with runners on base, the Yankees have searched desperately for since Game 1.

They squandered a promising start against Zack Greinke, one of the Astros’ three aces. He gave up a single and walked three batters to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. With Greinke sputtering, Sanchez let him off the hook by striking out on a slider in the dirt.

In the fifth inning, the Yankees chased Greinke from the game with a D.J. LeMahieu single and an Aaron Judge walk. Aaron Hicks loaded the bases by drawing a walk against reliever Ryan Pressly. But Yankee Stadium soon fell quiet when Torres chased a slider out of the strike zone and Encarnacion flailed at an inside fastball.