Yankees vs. Rays: The Savages vs. The Stable YANKEES vs. RAYS GAME 1

NEW YORK — The Stable vs. The Savages.

Just another way to say top-seeded Tampa Bay and the No. 5 Yankees meet in the best-of-five AL Division Series starting Monday at neutral site San Diego.

Tampa Bay players wear blue T-shirts with four horses lined up behind a fence, a reference to Rays manager Kevin Cash declaring “I’ve got a whole damn stable full of guys that throw 98 miles an hour” in response to Aroldis Chapman throwing a 101 mph pitch near Mike

Brosseau’s head on Sept. 1.

New York sold “Savages in the Box” shirts for $29.99 each last year, memorializing manager Aaron Boone’s infamous comment on his batters during a profane rant at rookie umpire Brennan Miller in a July 18 doubleheader opener against the Rays.

“That’s the entertainment business of it. At the end of the day, it’s series like this that make the statement, not anything else,” Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton said Thursday.

Tampa Bay swept two games from Toronto in the first round for its first postseason series win since

2008. The Yankees took two straight at Cleveland, including a memorable 10-9 victory on Wednesday night that took 4 hours, 50 minutes, the longest nine-inning game in major league history.

The Rays made a declaration against the Yankee during the regular season. New York started 9-3 overall, lost three of four at Tropicana Field, won six straight and then got swept three in a row by the Rays in the

Bronx at the start of a sevengame skid. Tampa Bay took two of three on its second trip to New York, finishing 8-2 to win the season series for the first time since 2014.

Hitting coach Marcus Thames was ejected by plate umpire Vic Carapazza during the second game of a doubleheader split at Tampa Bay on Aug. 8 for chirping from the dugout, and Boone was tossed after he ran out of the dugout to argue. Then came the Chapman pitch to Brosseau on Sept. 1, which earned the closer a threegame suspension that remains under appeal. Both managers were suspended for one game apiece.

Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka had hit Joey Wendle with a 95 mph fastball in the first inning. The next day, New York reliever Ben Heller was tossed for hitting Hunter Renfroe.

“I think everything that happened in New York hopefully is in the past,” Brosseau said. “The way that we pitch, we’re going to attack hard in. That’s the best way to get their hitters out, and that’s what we’re going to do. As far as having anything carryover, past experiences, at least from our end I think we’ve put it in the past and our focused is pretty much getting past this round and moving on.”

New York hit .218 with 13 homers against Tampa Bay, averaging 3.4 runs per game. Yankees pitchers had a 4.84 ERA vs. the Rays, allowing 47 runs and 16 homers.

But the Rays’ dominance has been greater generally at the Trop. Tampa Bay is 56-41 at home against the Yankees since 2010, winning its home season series nine times with one split.