Cone likens ’22 Yanks to ’98 champs

Even after a pair of bad losses in Boston, the Yankees remain on pace to threaten the franchise record of 114 wins and David Cone believes, like that 1998 team, having that kind of goal in mind would be a good thing for this year’s team — especially if it maintains a double-digit lead in the AL East.

“We were chasing history,” Cone said this weekend at Fenway Park. “We thought, ‘How many can we win? Let’s go for it.’ ”

The Yankees have built a 14-game lead over the second-place Red Sox in the division. With the expected return of Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi and Garrett Whitlock to the pitching staff, perhaps Boston can make it a race.

If not, it will be up to the Yankees to create their own goals.

“Having a certain record in mind can be a motivating factor,” Cone said. “You’re not going to do it at the expense of health or long-term success, but it’s a nice thing to shoot for. People still ask me about that ’98 team more than any other I was on because of what we were able to do.”

They won 125 games — including the postseason — a number Cone thinks this team can threaten, especially with the addition of more playoff games.

He noted similarities between the teams, including the strength of the rotation — although Jameson Taillon and Nestor Cortes have struggled over much of the last month — and the depth of the lineup.

“Our offense didn’t rely on just a couple of guys,” Cone said. “This lineup is the same way. And now they have that left-handed bat in [Matt] Carpenter, who reminds me of the kind of guy we had in ’98, when we had Tim Raines and [Darryl Strawberry].”

And he’ll be pulling for this year’s team to set a new record.

“I would love to see them do it and I’d love to be around for it,” said Cone, who will miss some time broadcasting for the next few weeks as he recovers from hip replacement surgery.

But he also knows no regular-season records matter if they don’t come along with a title at the end of the year.

“You’ve got to close the deal, but part one is to chase the history of it,” Cone said.

He recalled a meeting Joe Torre had with the team late in the regular season, when the team hit a rare rough patch and was in the midst of two three-game losing streaks in the span of nine games, but still leading the division by 20 games.

“We got into a little bit of a lull and Torre told us, ‘We need to kick this into gear. We’ve come too far this year to finish slow.’ We got the sense from him the importance of it and decided, ‘Let’s finish this off.’ ”