HOUSTON — It sounded and felt like a funeral home.

Man hugs that produced the loud sound of hands slapping shirtless backs, moist eyes, chins buried on shoulders and soft words that couldn’t chill the grief that smothered the Yankees’ clubhouse late Saturday night.

Thanks to DJ LeMahieu’s dramatic two-run home run in the ninth, the Yankees had gotten off the canvas again in a season that was dominated by serious injuries to big names and never derailed them. The opposite-field poke to right only tied the score, but a feeling that Game 6 of the ALCS was theirs washed over the Yankees.

So when Jose Altuve, the smallest man on the field with an oversized heart and an ocean of desire, sent an Aroldis Chapman slider beyond the left-field wall for a two-run homer that carried the Astros to a pulsating, 6-4, win in front of a sold out Minute Maid Park crowd of 43,357, the Yankees were ushered into winter and Houston was on the way to their second World Series in three years, where they will face the Nationals.

“At this time of the year only one team goes home happy,’’ Brett Gardner said in a Yankees’ clubhouse as quiet as a cemetery after midnight.

As Aaron Boone moved from Gio Urshela to Aaron Hicks and to Gary Sanchez, it was a rare peek behind the velvet rope of a team that often spoke about how close it was. Still numb from Altuve’s no-doubt-about-it blast and the eyes moist, other players moved around the room not sure what to do.

With his No. 99 shirt tail out and road gray pants on, Aaron Judge walked to his locker, turned around toward the middle of the room and back to his locker with a blank look on his face.

“It’s a failure,’’ Judge said of Altuve’s home run knee-capping a 103-win season, the Yankees’ first AL East title in seven years and the beating they administered to the Twins in the ALDS. “We talked about winning the division and winning the World Series. No matter how many games we won during the regular season it is a failure.’’

It’s the first time since 1910-19, the Yankees went through a decade without reaching the World Series. Their last appearance was 2009 when they won it.

It is also the second time in three years the Astros ended the Yankees’ season in the ALCS at Minute Maid Park.

Until LeMahieu’s opposite-field two-run homer to right that just eluded a jumping George Springer off Astros closer Roberto Osuna, there wasn’t a hint the Yankees’ season would expire suddenly.

Chad Green gave up a three-run homer to Yuli Gurriel in the first inning that forced the Yankees to play from behind immediately. Sanchez’s RBI single in the second made it 3-1, and Urshela’s solo homer in the fourth cut the deficit to 3-2. The Astros pushed a run across on Alex Bregman’s ground out in the sixth to restore the two-run advantage.

Astros left fielder Michael Brantley made a diving catch on Aaron Hicks’ short pop in left in the seventh and turned it into a double play with a perfect throw that got to first base ahead of a returning Judge. Sanchez hit into a double play to end the eighth.

Urshela started the ninth with a sharp single to left and LeMahieu battled Osuna before tying the score, 4-4.

“Crazy game, we battled back,’’ LeMahieu said. “Tough way to lose there.’’

And something that may take forever to get over and maybe not even then.

“You spend the last nine months together and just like that a swing of the bat and it is over,’’ said Gardner, who is a free agent and not a lock to return. “It takes time to get over.’’