Why 45-20 Yankees think they still can get a lot better

The Yankees talked about where they stand and how they’ve done after their win on saturday.

NEW YORK — The Yankees played another imperfect perfect game Saturday at Yankee Stadium.

Ace Luis Severino uncharacteristically struggled with his control and didn’t have his best slider, yet still totally dominated tossing eight shutout innings while striking out nine and allowing just three hits.

Yankees’ react to Severino stealing popup from Sanchez

The hitters had their moments, too – there was Gleyber Torres’ two-out RBI double in the second inning that made it a 1-0 game and the fifth inning began with Giancarlo Stanton lining a homer to left and Gary Sanchez following with a homer to center – but the Yanks ended up with just four runs instead of seven or eight due to a 2-for-10 afternoon hitting with runners in scoring position.

The end result was a 4-1 Yankees victory, this one climbing them to 26 games over .500 with a best-in-baseball 46-20 record that is the third best all-time after 66 games behind only the 2001 Seattle Mariners (52-14) and 1998 Yankees (49-17).

And yet when the Yankees think about how they got there, they’re all thinking the same thing:

They can get better.

Maybe a lot better if they add another ace pitcher such as Jacob deGrom or Cole Hamels before the July 31 trade deadline without subtracting from the big-league roster.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” right fielder Aaron Judge said. “We’ve kind of dipped into it every now and then. Once it starts heating up a little bit and guys start coming around, it’s going to be a fun summer.”

It’s already been fun for the Yankees, who are winning games in bunches despite Severino being their only sure thing in the rotation and despite a lot of their biggest bats struggling. Stanton is batting just .242 and Sanchez is batting .190. Greg Bird is hitting .213 and Aaron Hicks is hitting .239.

Despite that, the Yankees amazingly haven’t had a losing streak beyond two games yet.

“We’ve had timely hits … big hits,” Stanton said. “Guys step up. (But) we haven’t all clicked at the same time. Once that happens and we’re on all cylinders, there’s more room to get better.”

If they get better, we could be looking at a new single-season record for wins. As of now, the Yankees already are on pace for 113 wins. The 2001 Mariners and 1916 Cubs share the record with 116, while the ’98 Yankees are next with 114.

We’ll find out in the coming months if the Yankees can make a run at 117.

“Whatever the record ends up being, that can sometimes be a little circumstantial whether a team ends up winning 90 games or 98 or 107,” rookie manager Aaron Boone said. “That’s not necessarily the end goal. When I looked at this team when I knew I was taking over … I looked at this team as having a chance to be great. And that’s the goal … for us to be great.

“As far as what the record is and what it means and matching us up, I don’t really get caught up in that that much. It’s more about how can we continue to improve as a club, and that’s ultimately our goal with the idea that we have a chance to be special. But right now in June it’s a chance.”

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.