New York Mets right-hander Luis Severino made headlines Friday when he jokingly said he was not concerned about the New York Yankees because they only possess two hitters, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.
And for most of the past month, the Yankees struggled to get production beyond Soto and Judge, tumbling out of first place. But coming off one of their more complete showings in recent weeks, they are hoping to get rolling again starting with a Tuesday visit from the Mets.
The Yankees dropped both games to the Mets last month at Citi Field, falling behind by eight runs before losing 9-7 in the first game and then absorbing a 12-2 blowout in the other.
Those results are part of the Yankees' 20 losses in 30 games since getting to 50-22 on June 14. However, the Yankees are coming off a 9-1 victory on Monday that earned a home split of a four-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays. New York tied a season high with five homers and collecting 15 hits.
Soto had three of those hits and went 11-for-18 in the series. Soto homered in the seventh and eighth innings after Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe and DJ LeMahieu homered. For Volpe, it was his first home run since May 16. For LeMahieu, it was his first since last September.
"It is what it is," Soto said after the Yankees reached double digits in hits for the fifth time in their past 30 contests. "They can think whatever they want. At the end of the day, we trust and believe in every single guy in here and I think we have everything that we need to show them that we can do it."
"We want to win," Yankees manager Aaron Boone added when asked about Severino's comments. "It's not even so much about the Mets, it's just where we are in the season and what we're fighting for and what we're kinda going through and trying to get ourselves right and like they're the next ones in the way. ... It's not overly personal for me."
The Mets are 29-15 since falling to 22-33 after a 10-3 home loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 29. New York is also 12-9 since the previous meetings with the Yankees and is coming off a 6-4 win over the host Miami Marlins on Monday that completed a four-game-series split.
Francisco Lindor homered twice on Monday and is hitting .302 with 12 homers and 33 RBIs in 55 games since being moved to the leadoff spot on May 18. Jeff McNeil, who batted .216 before the All-Star break, hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs in the finale against Miami.
"I'm here to play as hard as I can and make sure the group continues to climb," Lindor said.
Since Severino pitched Saturday, he will not start in the upcoming series. The Mets will open the set with Jose Quintana (4-6, 4.13 ERA), who is coming off his worst outing in more than two months. After going 3-0 with an 0.89 ERA in his previous five starts, Quintana was tagged for four homers and five runs in 5 2/3 innings against the Colorado Rockies on July 14.
Quintana is 3-3 with a 2.97 ERA in eight career appearances (seven starts) against the Yankees.
After Carlos Rodon struck out 10 and allowed two hits and one run in seven innings on Monday, rookie Luis Gil (10-5, 3.17 ERA) will start for the Yankees on Tuesday.
Gil went 1-1 in his past two starts despite giving up only two runs on nine hits to go along with 16 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings. In his three starts before those two efforts, Gil was 0-3 with a 14.90 ERA. He was tagged for five runs in 4 1/3 innings in the second of those three outings, on June 26 in his lone career appearance against the Mets.
