HOUSTON — The Aaron Boone tryout camp convened in quite an interesting place, since this was ALCS Game 1 against — forget the Red Sox — the Yankees most heated and hated rival.

But there was Giancarlo Stanton starting in the outfield for the first time since July 21 against the Astros. And Matt Carpenter just plain starting for the first time since Aug. 8. And Frankie Montas appearing in a game for the first time since Sept. 16. Miguel Castro, absent from the Division Series, resurfaced and so did Isiah Kiner-Falefa as a starting shortstop after that seemed implausible just 24 hours ago.

Boone could not say publicly what he was trying to do Wednesday night because how do you say out loud to the baseball world, “I was trying to steal a game.” But the Yankee manager was attempting just that on the road, with a weary team against a rested foe starting their best against your decidedly not best.

“It’s going to take more than just a few to get through all of this,” Boone said about going to parts of his roster in ALCS Game 1 that he did not venture toward in the five games it took to oust Cleveland.

Boone was trying to learn something about who was present and might be leaned on for the rest of this series because the hope that Andrew Benintendi, DJ LeMahieu and Ron Marinaccio would emerge from injury to join the cast did not materialize. He was doing everything possible to stay away from pen stalwarts Clay Holmes, Jonathan Loaisiga and Wandy Peralta unless the Yanks had a very late lead because they worked so much in the Division Series.

The reality of Game 1 was the reality. No escaping it. The Astros had played only three times in 13 days and not at all since sweeping out the Mariners on Saturday. They had Hall of Fame-bound ace Justin Verlander before a home crowd making his 32nd postseason start. The Yankees eliminated Cleveland on Tuesday night, flew in the morning to Houston and at night were sending out their No. 4 starter, Jameson Taillon, for his first postseason start.

If the Yankees could somehow steal this one. Get a win under these conditions, not using the best of their pen, then they were lined up with their three best starters — Luis Severino, Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes — to pitch Games 2-4 on full rest with a better-situated bullpen and the latter two games back in The Bronx. And the Yankees could have stolen this game and sent a message that maybe this time would be different against the enemy that had ended their postseasons in 2015, ’17 and ’19.

That didn’t happen because the Yanks couldn’t find a big hit and Clarke Schmidt, in particular, was strafed for two huge ones. Without a theft of Game 1, the Yankees now have a desperation with Games 2-4 to maximize their best if they are ever going to solve the Astros.

They had their chances for a terrific underdog win. Specifically they had Verlander troubled early with a mounting pitch count and could not find a big hit, notably because it felt like every significant moment found Josh Donaldson or Carpenter, who combined to draw one walk and strike out in their other seven at-bats. Each whiffed twice with two men on base, Carpenter as the go-ahead run in the eighth inning.

And the Yankees lost 4-2. They have now lost six times in eight 2022 games versus Houston and agonizingly so. The losses are twice by one run, three times by two and once by three — so close, but Houston routinely makes it too far. The only two wins came on Aaron Judge walk-offs, so the Yankees had never led within the action of the game until Harrison Bader became the first Yankee to homer four times in his first six playoff games with the team. But the lead lasted about 10 minutes — an RBI double by ninth-place non-hitter Martin Maldonado off Taillon tied the score 1-1 in the bottom of the second.

Verlander righted himself from a high pitch count early. He retired the last 11 he faced, the first six in that span by strikeout. He whiffed 11 in all and the Yankees struck out 17 times — one shy of the nine-inning playoff record they set in losing Division Series Game 2 to Tampa Bay in 2020. They did hit two solo homers. But Houston, which whiffed only twice (none before the sixth inning), hit three solo homers.

With every other edge the Astros possess in this series, the Yankees cannot win if Houston out-homers them. And the Astros did so because Boone keeps trusting Schmidt and his overabundance of sliders (some of which under stress hang too delectably). It didn’t work in a huge regular-season game in September in Toronto, nor a Division Series loss to Cleveland nor Wednesday night. Schmidt hung an 0-2 slider to Yuli Gurriel who broke the 1-1 tie leading off the sixth. One out later, after initially being up 1-2, Schmidt ran the count full and yielded a homer to Chas McCormick on a sinker.

These were right-on-right, two-strike, bottom-part-of-the-lineup homers. So not Yordan Alvarez or Jose Altuve or Alex Bregman.

“So we knew it was going to be a slog kind of getting through those middle innings [without his best relievers],” Boone conceded.

The whole game was a slog for the Yankees. It was auditions in October, desperation created by injury and a toughening schedule. Still, there was a game here to steal. One big hit. One less hanging slider. In the end, just more lament against the Astros.