The Mets and Yankees played three games against each other in spring training, so the novelty of referring to the opposing New York team as “them” has worn off for Carlos Mendoza.
Fifteen years as a Yankees minor league instructor/major league coach and now a half-season into his first MLB managing job, Mendoza wasn’t about to get too nostalgic as he prepared for his first Subway Series as Mets manager.
The Mets have two games ahead against their Bronx neighbors and are more concerned with continuing their recent surge than any of the other hoopla.
“They have got a good team,” Mendoza said. “We have got a good team and we are playing well, too.”
Mendoza still occasionally converses with his old friend Aaron Boone, the Yankees manager, but Tuesday and Wednesday at Citi Field will be more businesslike.
Harrison Bader, a New Yorker who played in the Subway Series on the other side, sharing a dugout with Mendoza, was asked what it’s got to be like for the Mets manager given that Mendoza helped develop and nurture many of the Yankees players.
“Go out there and kick some ass — that is all there is to it,” Bader said. “If anything [the Subway Series], amplifies the level of gratitude we have for the opportunities of the game. I am excited for [Mendoza] to experience it. I am excited for me to experience it. I’ll be on the other side now and I’m going to embrace it and dive into it and I am going to have as much fun as I possibly can.”
It’s hardly the first time a former Yankees player or coach will be guiding the Mets in the Subway Series.
Willie Randolph was the Mets manager from 2005-08 and experienced it. Buck Showalter was the Mets manager for the past two seasons.
“There’s always wrinkles to it,” Boone said. “Mendy being such an important part of this organization for such a long time and now helping lead that organization, yeah, it’ll be a little odd. We got to do it in spring training where we saw him, but now these count. It’ll certainly be fun to see him.”
The Mets have been formidable in June with a 13-6 record that includes four straight series victories.
To keep that streak intact, they would have to sweep the two games in Queens against the Yankees.
Mendoza last week switched his pitching rotation, moving David Peterson into Tuesday’s start after deciding Luis Severino should face the Cubs.
Severino on Sunday responded with one of his top performances of the season, striking out 10 over six shutout innings.
Now it’s Peterson’s job — his mound opponent is Gerrit Cole — to validate the second half of Mendoza’s rotation readjustment.
For Peterson, the challenge starts with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, but doesn’t end there.
“They have got a great lineup,” Peterson said. “Those guys statistically and historically are two of the best hitters we have in the game right now, so for me that doesn’t change anything. I could be facing the guy with the highest statistics or lowest stats in the league and it’s still the big leagues.”
Bader, who grew up attending the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, welcomes the diversion of these games.
“It’s a Subway Series,” Bader said. “If we were playing just another team, there is no title to it. Two New York teams playing each other, there is like a theme. As a young kid, as a fan, I loved it. I loved the emotion of all the back and forth. We all want to hoist a trophy up in New York. That’s all of our dreams”
—Additional reporting by Greg Joyce