New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge seemed to try to light a fire under his teammates when he called them out last week for displaying "a little lack of focus" amid the club's ongoing struggles. 

Judge then could do nothing but watch as the Yankees dropped two of three home games to the Minnesota Twins (44-47) over the holiday weekend. Following New York's 6-1 loss to Minnesota on Sunday, Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. spoke honestly about the club's current run of form.

"Concern level is high" for struggling Yankees

"(The) concern level is high," Chisholm admitted, per Roger Rubin of Newsday. "Everyone is trying... to help the team win every day, and when it's not going well, it kind of sucks. So a lot are a lot of guys are like kind of tense. We’ve just got to remember who we are." 

The Yankees improved to 36-23 on the same day that Judge last played before he began missing time due to a stress fracture of the first rib on his right side. New York will now head into a pivotal four-game series at the Tampa Bay Rays (52-35) responsible for a record of 49-40. That series will get underway on Monday evening. 

"It’s been frustrating," Yankees slugger Cody Bellinger acknowledged. "We’re in a little bit of a storm right now, and you can’t run away from a storm – it’ll keep on chasing you. So you’ve got to take it head-on." 

Aaron Boone: Losing sucks

The Yankees ended the first weekend of July having lost nine of their last 10 games and 12 of their past 15 contests. According to Rubin, New York averaged 2.7 runs over its last 15 games. 

Judge seemingly won't return to the Yankees lineup before the middle of August at the absolute earliest. The club should get help before the Aug. 3 MLB trade deadline arrives, but such future moves likely won't be finalized before the Yankees play seven more games ahead of the All-Star break. 

"Losing sucks, so anytime you go through a 10-day stretch like we're in right now – we haven’t hit much, we haven't played well (in the field), we haven't pitched our best – all of that adds up," Yankees manager Aaron Boone added. "We’ve got to find a way to turn it around, and get rid of the excuses of 'this guy's out, that guy's out.' We’ve got people capable of going out there and helping us win, but we got to put it together as a group."