Yankees bats wake up in time for Subway Series rivalry with Mets after Luis Severino comments

Before the Subway Series begins for the second time this season on Tuesday night, the Yankees first had to get past the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday afternoon as they tried to salvage a division of a four-game series.

New York did it with a 9-1 victory in which the attack exploded with 15 hits, receiving contributions from up and down the lineup. The strike comes after the Yankees had scored just five runs in their previous two games (both losses) and just before receiving the Mets for two games.

Why is this relevant? Well, if you remember, former Yankee and current Met pitcher Luis Severino threw a few punches at the Bronx Bombers after the All-Star break when he said, partly tongue-in-cheek, that the Yanks only have two good hitters in Aaron Judge It is Juan Soto.

Although Soto proved once again that he is a great hitter with two home runs on Monday, several other players in the lineup (including Judge) also had strong offensive performances.

Austin Wells It is Antonio Volpe had back-to-back home runs and each had multi-hit games while DJ Le Mahieu hit his first home run of the season as he continues to try to get back into shape since his foot injury. Oswaldo Cabrera also added two hits and two RBI.

“It was really fun today,” Wells said. “It’s always great when the lineup is rolling and everyone is getting on base and I think we’re getting on base and it was fun to beat them today.”

Manager Aaron Boone was also impressed with what he saw from his offense on Monday and said his team used the results of Sunday’s game, where New York scored four runs in the final three innings, as a starting point for the series finale.

“Yeah, I mean, we need to get these guys moving,” he said after the win. “There are some of these guys that I feel like are on a good trend here, whether it’s a few days, whether it’s a few weeks, whether it’s good at-bats today. So, nowadays, everyone has contributed quality batting.

“If we do that — obviously we’re not going to score nine every day — but I feel like after yesterday where I felt like we had a lot of good hits, we carried that into today and were able to hit the ball out of the ballpark.

The Yankees launched five home runs in Monday’s game, giving them 146 for the season, 11 behind the Baltimore Orioles for most in the majors. However, 60 of those explosions belong to Judge and Soto.

Enter Severino.

The right-hander will not face his former team when the two clubs meet starting Tuesday, as the Mets opted for two left-handed starters. José Quintana It is Sean Manaea against the Yankees who have struggled against lefties this season.

A long-time Yankee who played for them last year, Severino is still close with several of his former teammates and has a group chat with some of them, where he received some jokes for “shunning” his old team.

“They talk bad about me… like ‘you’re afraid of us,’” Severino said last week, to which he responded: “I’m not afraid. Right now, you only have two good hitters.”

It was all great fun and ripe for friendly competition, but, of course, the comments reached the Yankees, who were asked to respond.

For the most part, players and coaches knew the way Severino made his comments. Boone chimed in and admitted that his team suffered “troubles at times” but mentioned how high they rank in terms of runs scored. In fact, after Monday’s nine-run game, New York now leads the majors with 508 runs scored — an answer of its own.

“It is what it is. They can think whatever they want,” Soto said. “At the end of the day, we trust and believe in every guy here and I think we have everything we need to show them that we can do this.”

“I mean, we did that in the first half. We dominated most of the first half, so I think when a team does that, I don’t think it’s just one or two players — it takes every player in the lineup and our relievers, bullpen, everything. So I think it’s not just a two-man team, it’s a really good team right now.”

The Yankees are a very good team, with Monday’s win giving them 60 wins on the season – 1.5 GB of the Orioles for the AL East division lead.

As for the Mets, they still hold the third and final NL Wild Card spot entering play on Monday. A win against the Miami Marlins to split their own four-game series (just like the Yankees did with the Rays) would, at the very least, keep them there before the start of the Subway Series.

Of course, there is still a lot of season to be played by both teams. And while the two games at Yankee Stadium between cross-town rivals should be exciting regardless, there’s no doubt there’s a little extra energy when both teams are in the hunt for the playoffs.

The Yanks did their job of responding on Monday, now it’s time for the Mets to do theirs.

“We’re just going to try to win games,” Soto said. Everything that happened in the past is in the past. We’re focused on what’s going to happen in this series, we’re going to try to win this series and keep it rolling.”

“We want to win. It’s not so much about the Mets, it’s just where we are in the season and what we’re fighting for and what we’re going through and trying to get ourselves right and like they’re next in line… It’s not too personal for me,” Boone added.