Even the hint of a rally ignited a sellout crowd in The Bronx. So when DJ LeMahieu singled with one out in the fifth inning, the Yankee Stadium crowd went all Times Square on New Year’s.

The Yankees trailed 3-1 — which was also going to be their deficit in this ALCS if they did not come back — and so the faithful bellowed when Aaron Judge came up, perhaps unaware he was hitless in eight at-bats against Zack Greinke with five strikeouts, probably not caring even if they did know, because nothing quite stirs this fan base like Judge in a big spot.

Judge walked to knock out Greinke on one full-count pitch, and Aaron Hicks greeted Ryan Pressly by walking on another full count. Pressly, Houston’s top setup man, was in this game in the fifth inning because Astros manager A.J. Hinch sensed this was the key moment of Game 4. Two-run advantage and heart of the Yankee order due.

The intensity, importance and decibels rose. Aaron Boone had flipped Gleyber Torres into the cleanup spot — at 22 the youngest Yankee to ever hold the designation in the postseason — recognizing not just his hottest hitter this postseason, but most clutch. However, Torres was called out going too far with an attempted check swing against a Pressly slider that bounced off the plate. Edwin Encarnacion, who was moved out of the cleanup spot, then struck out too.

Not long after, in the top of the sixth, Carlos Correa hit the three-run homer that had escaped Torres and Encarnacion to blow the game open. Gary Sanchez, who failed in perhaps the Yankees’ biggest at-bat of Game 4 in the first inning, hit a cosmetic, two-run homer in the sixth.

The final was 8-3, as the Yankees failed in every phase and looked outclassed and unnerved by the conclusion. They played like the Orioles over the final three innings, looked like a team ready for winter. They do trail this series three-games-to-one, and their season could be over as early as Friday night.

The Yanks had not lost consecutive games at home to the same opponent since April. But they have lost two straight in The Bronx to the Astros and three in a row in this ALCS. They either assemble a three-game winning streak — the final two in Houston — or they end their first decade since the 1910s without ever reaching a World Series.

Much will be made, familiarly, that the Astros invested in the starting pitching that the Yankees did not. And, sure, that is a fact. But the Yanks had one of Houston’s obtained starters, Zack Greinke, reeling in the first inning as sure as they did Gerrit Cole in Game 3. Both times they made so little of their opportunities, a theme as strong in explaining this three-game losing streak as anything done by James Paxton, Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka.

They opened this postseason 4-0 and 14-for-45 (.311) with runners in scoring position, but three of those games were against their personal playoff pinata, Minnesota. In the three-game losing streak, they are 1-for-16, including 0-for-13 in The Bronx, and have scored just six runs. The Yanks led the majors in runs during the season, in part because they had the best batting average, slugging percentage and OPS with runners in scoring position.

But in the ALCS, particularly, too many spots in the lineup have shut down; and in Game 4 even Torres succumbed with an 0-for-4, two-error outcome. The Yankees can be beat up for being too homer dependent yet again. However, the Astros won Game 4 because they hit two three-run homers. This is the 2019 game, place guys on base and then do big damage. The Yanks have failed to do that damage in meaningful spots. Torres homered in Game 3 with Houston up 4-0 in the eighth, Sanchez’s two-run homer came with the Yanks down 6-1.

The Yankees generally just had bad at-bats and didn’t hit the ball with authority. Fourteen balls were hit more than 100 mph in Game 4 — just two by the Yankees. Judge hit a two-run homer in Game 2 in the fourth and then the Yanks didn’t score the next seven innings, losing in 11. They had first and second and no outs and bases loaded and two outs against Cole in the first inning of Game 3 and did not score. Cole settled in enough to throw seven shutout innings.

The precise Greinke had walked three batters total in his nine previous starts. He walked three in the first, including Brett Gardner with the bases loaded. He was at 25 pitches. Brad Peacock was warming. But Sanchez struck out on three pitches.

Greinke’s fourth walk and final batter was Judge in the fifth. The crowd surged with enthusiasm and hope, imploring a big hit, a huge moment. It did not come. Again. And the plug was pulled on the noise and very possibly this Yankees season.