Boone ready to scream ... but he won’t

BUFFALO — Aaron Boone isn’t Billy Martin. He may argue with an umpire here and there, but there will be no screaming or yelling in the clubhouse. There is no flipping of the post-game spread table in the big leagues anymore, anyway. He dealt with the pressure as a player with a calm persona, he can’t be different now as a manager.

But that doesn’t mean this epic Yankees slide isn’t eating him up inside and costing him sleep.

“I’ve always tried to deal with successes and failures with an emotional stability that, I think is important,” Boone said before Wednesday’s game. “Look, I love shaking hands at the end of the day, the best part about this job is when we go out there and execute and win the game. And there’s nothing more rewarding as a bigleague manager than shaking hands at the end of a productive day at work.

“And that’s what we’re all working on each and every day. But you also know that we do this every single day and there’s going to be tough losses, there’s going to be hard-fought victories. I think the more you get on the emotional rollercoaster with that, the more you’re set up for being in trouble over the long haul,” he said. “So I have a lot of confidence in this group. I have a lot of trust in what we’re doing and I’m confident that it will show.”

The Yankees are facing a battle just to get into the playoffs. Having lost 15 of their last 20 games before Wednesday night. They went into the game .500 on the season in September for the first time since 1995.

So, the frustration is starting to seep out of the clubhouse now.

After a team meeting with GM Brian Cashman, the Yankees went out and their bats went dead Tuesday night. Luke Voit expressed his frustration and called the streak embarrassing and admitted the obvious: the division is all but gone.

“I feel like teams aren’t really scared of us right now and it’s kind of a sad thing because we’re the New York Yankees,” Voit said. “And we were obviously probably favorite to win the division this year and that obviously is going away.”

Boone had empathy for Voit, but not a lot of sympathy. This is the gig, Boone said. To be a big leaguer, you not only have to handle the losing stretches, but find a way out of them.

“I saw some of his comments and again, that’s part of, of, of being a big-league ballplayer and especially as an offensive position player,” Boone said. “You deal in a world of failure. even when it’s going well. You’ve got to be able to deal with that. You add on top of the fact that this is such a unique season, and obviously the shortened season and the importance of every game, the little couple of weeks stretch where you don’t play well is certainly magnified. We’re experiencing and witnessing that now. So it’s important I think that these guys absolutely trust in what they’re doing and trust in their preparation and trust in the fact that they have all the equipment to go out there and deliver and deliver in an impactful way.”