The Yankees scored at a strong clip for much of this season, yet all the pathologies that created concern about their lineup in spring lurked — like a sickness in remission.

There was, in many ways, a race — could the Yankees get to the finish line this season without being overwhelmed by their age, by their fragility, by the lack of speed/batting average that could diversify an attack if the walks and homers stopped coming?

They had a bit of a Fantasyland going there for four months.

Fountains of Youth for Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira. Some injuries, but nothing to devastate the whole attack. Enough long balls — especially at home — to whitewash how much difficulty so many of their hitters had simply reaching base.

But the season is not four months and reality is a pitch — that these days the Yankees cannot hit.

The Yankees still have the second-most runs in the majors, but are 24th in August. Collin McHugh, the Houston starter Wednesday, is a fine pitcher, but he was overpowering the Yankees with 90- to 91-mph fastballs and 88-mph cutters. The Yankees looked like they were swinging spaghetti against the force of a wind tunnel — slow and ineffective. There were innings that went 1-2-3 and felt like seconds, not hitters used.

The Yankees scored four runs in three games against the Astros. They had just two extra-base hits in the three games, accentuating that when the ball does not fly for them, they do not have another way to build runs.

That they won Monday was a tribute to the pitching of Nathan Eovaldi and that Oliver Perez, now an Astros reliever, still can butcher a game in a hurry. The victory was 1-0. The only run scored Tuesday was in the ninth inning with Houston up 15-0. In a 6-2 setback Wednesday, the Yanks were behind 5-0 when Didi Gregorius hit a two-run homer.

It was not long ago that the Yankees saw their frequency of home games as an ally down the stretch, particularly because the short right-field porch played to their offensive strengths.

But after sweeping three games from their personal piñatas, the Twins, the Yankees went 2-5 against the Indians and Astros, managing 16 runs in seven games and going 5-5 overall.

“It [the offensive downturn] is the root of our problems,” Joe Girardi said.

So now this is what the Yankees hope: that after 16 games in 16 days, an off-day Thursday will refresh bodies. That the limp pitching staffs of the Braves and Red Sox — the opponents on a six-game trip — offer further revival. Because without a reawakening, not only is winning the AL East going to become impossible with the Blue Jays an offensive machine and seemingly allergic to losing, but it is going to be difficult to even hold onto a wild card.

“The last couple of days, I didn’t think [the energy] was real good,” Brett Gardner said.

But is there an on switch? Or is this the season now — the Yankees unplugged?

The Yankees offense is best when Jacoby Ellsbury and Gardner are persistently on base. The oft-nicked Ellsbury did not play Wednesday with a hip ailment and Girardi was not sure about this weekend.

Gardner plays a physical style daily and he is among those who looked pooped — his strikeouts becoming more and more frequent.

A-Rod has the fallen-and-can’t-get-up look about him — as if four months is all he had in this body. In the NL park this weekend, he will be just a bench player, so he essentially is getting four days off in a row. However, two days off earlier this week did nothing to resuscitate his swing. Teixeira has started just one of the Yankees’ last nine games because of a deep bone bruise in his leg, and the way he ran after pinch hitting in the ninth — or, more accurately, didn’t run — he is more likely to need a walker than a bat in Atlanta.

Greg Bird suddenly looks like a rookie the league is adapting to, Stephen Drew is not getting the ball out of the park to mitigate some of his batting-average woes and Chris Young is approximating more the Mets’ version of Chris Young. The only Yankee having consistently good at-bats is Carlos Beltran.

Consider that Houston’s righty DH, Evan Gattis, hit three homers in the final two games of this series — or as many as Yankees righty hitters had in the entire 10-game homestand.

The Yankees sent down Nick Goody after the game, and it would not surprise me if they bring up another position player such as Jose Pirela or Rob Refsnyder for the weekend, hoping even one more fresh body could help.

“We have a lot of people scuffling at one time and it is hard to score like that,” Girardi said.

For four months, the Yankees outran their offensive concerns. But the season isn’t four months.