NEW YORK -- Inning after inning, the Astros found themselves with chances to break out of their funk, needing just one big hit to get the engine started against the Yankees. Inning after inning, Houston's hitters found themselves returning to the dugout, frustrated by another lost opportunity.

That was the story Friday night at Yankee Stadium, but it's also been the theme of the week for the Astros, who dropped their sixth straight game, a 4-1 loss to the Yankees in the Bronx.

• Box score

The Astros went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, the latest in a week filled with such performances. During the six-game skid, Houston is 6-for-44 with runners in scoring position, a paltry .136 average.

"One-for-13 isn't good," said Alex Bregman, who went 0-for-5 atop the lineup. "We need to do a lot better if we want to win games. Give a lot of credit to them, they have a good team over there, but we have to show up tomorrow and figure out a way to get it done."

Josh Reddick didn't enter the game until the sixth inning, but both of his at-bats came with one out and a pair of runners on base. He lined out to left field in the sixth with the potential tying run at second base. Then, with the Yankees leading by three in the eighth, Reddick stepped to the plate as the potential tying run. Gleyber Torres made a nice stop on Reddick's hard grounder, flipping the ball with his glove to Didi Gregorius to start a rally-killing -- and spirit-crushing -- 4-6-3 double play.

"It's zero fun, I can tell you that," Reddick said. "We're not hitting with runners in scoring position. Those big hits, we can't seem to come across like we have been in the past all year. It just keeps carrying over and carrying over. We'll get out of it. It's obviously frustrating and upsetting the way we're going, but we know we're going to come out of it."

The belief inside the clubhouse is that all it will take is one hit or one big inning to swing the momentum, but the Astros haven't been able to locate either of those in nearly a week.

"You try to fight to get your opportunities, and then you've got to come up with the big hit at some point," manager AJ Hinch said. "It just eluded us again."

The Astros wasted a strong effort from right-hander Brad Peacock, who limited New York to two runs on five hits over six innings, striking out 11 without issuing a walk.

"We're not scoring any runs," Reddick said. "That's one strength about this lineup, this team, we know how to put runs across at a steady pace. We're just not putting up crooked numbers right now."

The six-game losing streak is the longest for the Astros since June 4-10, 2015, when they dropped seven straight during Hinch's first season at the helm. They had lost three straight only twice this season, both coming before April 23.

"I think it gets magnified the more and more it goes on with how this team is supposed to be and how good we are, how good we've been playing despite not having all our guys here," Reddick said. "We can't lean on that, can't have that as an excuse; it's just a matter of us not getting the job done with the guys we have here. We've got to do something quick and figure it out."

The pitching staff has an unsightly 6.34 ERA during the losing streak, but they've held the opposing team to three or four runs in four of the losses. The offense has been a bigger issue, scoring only 14 runs and stranding 50 runners on base during this stretch, but Hinch wasn't in the mood to point at one thing or another when asked what he believes has been the most concerning trend.

"Just walking off the field as a loss at the end of the game," Hinch said. "You can talk about missed opportunities; we've had the lead a couple times where they've come from behind, but we haven't played from ahead enough in the last week. When you make your fair share of mistakes either in or outside the box score, it's tough to win here."

The Astros had a pair of five-game losing streaks last season, a five-game skid in 2017 and another in '16. This current slide has eclipsed those, and although Houston still holds a comfortable lead in the AL West, the Astros know they need to get back in the win column to keep it that way.

"You've got to keep fighting," Hinch said. "It feels bad, and you try not to carry one loss into the other, but we'll come back tomorrow ready to play."