It might be time for the Yankees to start inching away from the panic button. In two competitive games in the Subway Series, the Yankees held their own against a Mets team that came to the Bronx with baseball's second-best record — a series that, as both teams acknowledged, could become a preview of the World Series.

"They're a great ballclub over there. We're just trying to have good at-bats," Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge said. "This is potentially a team we can see down the stretch."

After the Yankees took both games against the Mets in the Bronx this week, evening the season series at 2-2, here are some takeaways the team can use to help swing momentum back from its 4-14 stretch earlier this month.

Aaron Judge broke out of his drought

When a player is hitting as well as Judge has this season, it's hard to call any stretch a slump. But in the nine games leading up to the Subway Series, Judge was hitting .133 with 13 strikeouts, marking one of the only down stretches of his season at the plate.

Two homers in two games can change things quickly. Judge hit two mammoth shots, a 404-foot opposite-fielder against Max Scherzer and a 453-foot line drive to left against Taijuan Walker. Talk of any slump seemed to surprise Judge.

"Home run drought, that's news to me," Judge said. "I really don't worry about that. I'm happy to barrel something up."

The pitch Judge hit off Scherzer wasn't a meatball, either. It was a well-located fastball on the outside part of the plate that Judge simply did a good job of driving the opposite way. The future Hall of Fame pitcher and Mets ace acknowledged it after the game.

"I thought if I kept the ball down on Judge, I could keep him in the ballpark," Scherzer said. "But he put a better swing on it."