After the Yankees were swept in Toronto, manager Aaron Boone took a moment to address the team.
His messaging, as Jazz Chisholm Jr. described it, was succinct.
“[That we are] the best team in the league,” Chisholm told reporters, including MLB.com following Thursday’s 8-5 loss to the Blue Jays. “We knew we were going to hit a speed bump. Just block out the noise and go out there when we get back home in New York, and just do what we do.”
Boone was asked about that address ahead of Friday afternoon’s Subway Series opener at Citi Field, where the manager expressed confidence in his team’s ability to be baseball’s best.
“I do believe that,” Boone said. “We’re not that right now. We’re not a complete team, and we’ve got a long way to go in this thing, but I feel like we have the makings of a special group. I do feel that way. For the most part, we’ve played that way most of the year.”
Thursday’s loss capped a four-game sweep and dropped the Yankees out of first place in the American League East for the first time since April 13.
They entered Friday’s opener against the Mets having lost 14 of their last 20 games, but Boone believes that sample is an outlier for a team that jumped out to a 42-25 start.
“Certainly, these last few weeks have been a struggle,” Boone said. “I would name two little six-day stretches in there where it was really challenging for us, and that’s part of it, but I have a ton of confidence in these guys, in our group, and we’ve just got to battle through this.”
The Yankees are not alone in their summer swoon.
Even after winning on Wednesday and Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Mets entered this weekend’s series having lost 14 of their last 19 games.
Boone and Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, who was on the Yankees’ big-league coaching staff from 2018-23, both said they had spoken to each other during their teams’ respective slides.
“With what we’ve got going here, it’s hard to take a deep look at what is going on [with the Yankees],” Mendoza said before Friday’s game. “They’re dealing with injuries as well, with what I can tell. That’s still a really good team.”
The three-game set in Queens marked the second installment of the Subway Series this year. In May, the Yankees won two of three against the Mets in the Bronx.
With a rotation ravaged by injuries, the Mets had not even decided on a starter for Sunday afternoon’s series finale as of Friday. The Yankees, meanwhile, were set to deploy Carlos Rodón (9-5, 2.95 ERA) on Saturday and Max Fried (10-2, 2.13 ERA) on Sunday.
But Boone was not taking the Mets lightly.
“With opponents, you never know. It’s place and time, who you face, who you’ve got going, so we’ve got to start playing better as a club overall,” Boone said.
“I really like the way we’ve started to swing the bats of late. I feel like we’ve got some guys that are starting to get it rolling after having a little bit of a lull there. Hopefully, that’s going to continue.”
