The New York Yankees are in a rut. After Saturday's 12-6 loss to the New York Mets the pinstripes have lost six straight games, including one sweep at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays to lose their AL East lead. Sunday will bring an opportunity to snap the losing streak and avoid a Subway Series sweep.

After Saturday's loss reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge (who got beaned in the head by a teammate during the defeat) was asked by a reporter if the string of losses was having an impact on the locker room. He offered one blunt word in response: "No."

The Yankees started out the season strong but the last few weeks have been brutal for everybody. Judge has performed decently but has also obviously come back down to earth after a ridiculous start to the year. Through June 1 the MVP slugger was hitting .391 from the plate and mashed 21 home runs to go with 50 RBI. Since then, however, Judge has "only" hit 11 dingers and driven in 21 runs while batting .299. His production going from historic to merely very good has resulted in a much slimmer margin of error for New York and the consequences of that have been especially harsh lately.

The MLB season is long and it's important for locker rooms to stay steady throughout the peaks and valleys. Judge clearly believes his team is doing that right now despite the demoralizing stretch.