ANAHEIM, Calif. -- For Matt Duffy, this all felt far too familiar.
It was only 11 months ago that Duffy's Chicago Cubs lost 11 consecutive games from late June to early July, going from nine games above .500 to a losing record. They never recovered. Now Duffy, a 31-year-old infielder, finds himself on a Los Angeles Angels team that just concluded a 14-game losing streak that torched their blistering start. As the losses mounted and the rut endured, Duffy noticed he and his Angels teammates were navigating games in a strikingly similar fashion -- by placing excessive importance on early-inning situations, by acting like any deficit was too large to overcome, by playing as if the losing streak had consumed them entirely.