HOUSTON _ The soft startup to the 2019 season was over.
On Monday, the Yankees arrived at Minute Maid Park to play the Astros, a fellow pennant contender.
And the Astros' late comeback for a 4-3 win provided a stark reminder about the level of opponent now facing the Yankees.
In the home seventh, lefty reliever Zack Britton handed back Masahiro Tanaka's hard-fought two-run lead.
And in the eighth against Adam Ottavino, a walk to Alex Bregman and a single by Michael Brantley led to Carlos Correa's tie-breaking infield it _ a broken bat squib halfway to first base that plated Bregman from third.
Gone was the Yankees' three-game winning streak, on the heels of Gary Sanchez's three-homer game in a 15-3 Sunday win at Baltimore. The Astros (6-5) won their fourth straight.
The Yankees (5-6) scored three times off Justin Verlander, who went six innings for a no-decision. Tanaka yielded just one run _ a Jose Altuve solo homer _ over his six innings, in another sharp outing.
It should have been an easier introduction to the new year. But most of the Yankees' first nine games had that survival-mode feel to them, due to their long, early-season injury list.
And now, they're facing a true contender in the Astros.
Historically, Verlander had always managed to get the better of Judge.
In their regular-season matchups and in their 2017 meetings in Games 2 and 6 of the AL Championship Series, the Astros ace subdued the Yankees slugger, who was a combined 0-for-13 with seven strikeouts.
That narrative began to change on Monday night under an open roof at Minute Maid Park.
Judge was on base all three times up against Verlander, punctuated by a go-ahead solo home run in the fifth inning.
After lining a single his first time up, Judge followed a Brett Gardner single with a walk, loading the bases and setting up Luke Voit's RBI single.
Verlander toughened at that point, getting Sanchez to pop out and Gleyber Torres to ground out.
But Judge's fifth-inning drive to right came off a 1-and-2 fastball that wasn't quite enough outside to prevent him from barreling it up for his third homer of the year.
An inning later, the Yankees extended their lead to 3-1 on consecutive, two-out doubles by DJ LeMahieu and Clint Frazier.
The ball hit by Frazier clanged off the high left field scoreboard, coming close to being his fourth homer in the past three games.
Frazier had never previously faced Verlander, but he was manager Aaron Boone's easy choice to start on Monday over lefty-hitting outfielder Mike Tauchman.
On Sunday, Frazier collected two home runs, only to be outdone by Sanchez.
Frazier also had the biggest hit of the new year for the Yankees just two nights earlier. Subbed into Saturday's game late, Frazier clubbed his first homer of the season _ a go-ahead, three-run shot _ in a 6-4 win at Baltimore.
"I'm just happy to see my name in the lineup the past few nights," Frazier said before arriving at Houston, the site of his first big league game and home run in 2017.
"I think it's great for me," Frazier said of this opportunity, subbing for Giancarlo Stanton (strained left biceps). "Playing every other day is difficult, especially when you go from playing every day" in the minors.
"It makes me probably put a little more pressure on myself than I should," Frazier said of the desire to "give them a show" in limited at-bats.
Just by being in there daily, "I feel more comfortable at the plate, and feel more a part of this team," Frazier said. "It's big for me."
