NEW YORK — Jeffrey Maier nearly had company.

With the Yankees on the brink of elimination, Anthony Volpe appeared to hit a game-tying two-run home run in the sixth inning of Wednesday night’s ALDS Game 3 against the Tampa Bay Rays in the Bronx.

But in a season-altering twist, an official review found that Volpe’s blast had some help.

Volpe’s two-out drive against Rays reliever Griffin Jax was initially deemed a homer, but because multiple fans reached out as the ball neared the left-field wall, the umpires initiated a video review.

Replays determined that one of the fans interfered with the ball and aided it over the wall. The call was overturned, resulting in an RBI ground-rule double for Volpe and leaving the Yankees still trailing, 4-3.

That proved to be the final score as the Rays completed a three-game sweep and extended the Yankees’ World Series drought to 17 years.

Tampa Bay tagged Yankees starter Max Fried for four runs — all with two outs — over his 5 2/3 innings. Rays rookie Victor Mesa Jr.’s tie-breaking two-run homer in the top of the sixth held up as the game-winner.

But the lasting image Wednesday was Volpe’s 357-foot screamer caroming off of the fan’s hands — and Spencer Jones striking out moments later to strand Volpe at second base.

It was a scene eerily reminiscent of Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS, when a 12-year-old Maier reached over the right-field wall at the old Yankee Stadium and caught a game-tying Derek Jeter home run in the eighth inning of an eventual Yankees victory.

Back then, MLB didn’t employ video replay, so that homer stood and became an iconic image in Jeter’s dynastic Yankees’ first World Series run.

On Wednesday, the result was totally different.

“After viewing all relevant angles, the Replay Official definitively determined the spectator interfered with the ball over the field of play,” MLB said in a statement. “The ball would not have left the playing field nor would it have been caught.”

The Yankees had returned to the Bronx trailing 0-2 in the best-of-five playoff series after a pair of deflating losses at Tropicana Field, where they managed only one hit in Game 1 and committed four defensive errors in Game 2.

Manager Aaron Boone expressed confidence in his Yankees’ ability to bounce back, citing the resiliency of a team that finished 93-68 despite repeated adversity. That adversity included three-time American League MVP Aaron Judge missing 84 games due to a fractured rib, and then suffering a calf strain that sidelined him during the playoffs.

Seeking a spark, Boone shook up the Yankees’ lineup for Game 3, including starting Volpe at second base over Jazz Chisholm Jr. and José Caballero at third base over Ryan McMahon.

The Yankees opted to hand the ball to their co-ace Fried — who tossed a six-inning, one-run gem against the Boston Red Sox in last week’s wild-card series — over Carlos Rodón (7-3, 2.67 ERA in 16 starts), who was lined up for Game 4.

The Rays struck first Wednesday when Jonathan Aranda lined a two-out, RBI single in the top of the third — their third hit of the inning against Fried.

That lead didn’t last long, as Ben Rice answered in the bottom of the inning with a two-out, RBI single of his own to tie the score, 1-1. It was Rice’s third RBI of the series and ninth of the postseason, carrying a Yankees offense that had been otherwise dormant in the ALDS.

Even with first base open, the Rays opted to pitch to Rice — just as manager Kevin Cash had suggested they would.

“Our best way for success is to continue to try to get strike one on him,” Cash said Tuesday, adding, “I don’t know if there’s a benefit just to walk him or pitch around him, because the other guys around him are very talented.”

The Rays retook the lead in the fourth when No. 9 hitter Ryan Vilade poked a solo home run into the first row of the right-field stands, just beyond the glove of a leaping Jones.

Vilade’s 340-foot drive would not have been a home run in any other MLB ballpark, according to MLB’s Statcast.

But once again, the Yankees responded in the bottom of the inning.

Volpe lined a 96.6-mph comebacker that struck Rays starter Nick Martinez in the back and bounded away for a single. That proved to be the 63rd and final pitch by Martinez, who came out of the game for left-handed reliever Ian Seymour.

The lefty-swinging Jones promptly greeted Seymour with a booming double to left field, and Volpe scored from first to tie the score, 2-2.

Fried seemed to settle in from there, pitching a 1-2-3 fifth inning and getting the first two outs of the sixth.

But Junior Caminero lined a two-out single back up the middle, setting up Mesa’s go-ahead two-run homer to right-center.

That was the final batter of the night for Fried, who struck out seven but allowed seven hits — including the two homers — over 80 pitches.

Even after Volpe’s long ball in the bottom of the sixth was overturned, the Yankees still had a chance to extend the rally. But Jax got Jones swinging on three pitches.

In another potentially dramatic moment, Giancarlo Stanton pinch-hit with a runner on first base and two outs in the eighth, representing the winning run at home plate. But the slugger struck out against Kevin Kelly, ending the threat.

Trent Grisham then struck out against Rays closer Bryan Baker for the final out of the game, leaving the tying run at second.

The loss capped a series in which the Yankees totaled only five runs and 12 hits in three games.

It marked the third year in a row that an opponent celebrated a playoff series victory at Yankee Stadium, following the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2024 World Series and the Toronto Blue Jays in last year’s ALDS.

The 17-year drought is tied for the Yankees’ longest since they won their first World Series title in 1923.

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