How can Yankees get better in 2nd half? Aaron Judge, Aaron Boone say …

Yankees manager Aaron Boone, right fielder Aaron Judge and left fielder Brett Gardner each explain how they believe the team can be even better in the second half following the 2018 MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 (7/17/18) at Nationals Park in Washington, DC.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ask any Yankees fan.

If they were told Aaron Boone, in his first season as manager, would have the Yankees 29 games over .500 at the All-Star break, they would have taken it in a second.

The problem: They’re still 4 1/2 games back of the juggernaut Red Sox in the American League East.

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Here’s how three key Yankees think they can get better in the second half.

Aaron Boone:

I’ll say this: We’ve put ourselves in a really good position, I think, overall we’ve played really well. But as I’ve talked with you guys a lot, we’re not satisfied at all in that room. I think the biggest thing is that these guys really use these four days (the All-Star break) to kind of give your mind a break, give your body a break, freshen up the best as you can with the idea that we’ve got a long way to go and that our mindset is, our expectation is that we’re going to be great. We’ve put ourselves in a position to have that opportunity, but we’ve got a long way from being that complete team that we hope to be in the end. To these guys’ credit, they’ve put themselves in a really strong position. Where can we improve? Everywhere. I think one of the signs of a potentially great team is that you’re not satisfied with anything you’ve done to this point. A handful of guys have had really great years. There’s probably even more guys in that room that certainly feel like they can be even better. That’s our expectation moving forward.

Aaron Judge:

There’s always different things. We could go all the way around: base-running, hitting in certain situations, pitching. The biggest thing is, we’ve got to just keep playing our game. We keep playing our game, we’ll be where we want to be. That’s all I’ve got.

Brett Gardner:

I think I can play better. I can’t speak for guys up and down the lineup but I think if you asked all the guys in the room, guys would say they could do a little better. I think we could pitch a little better, I think we could probably play a little better defense and we’re capable of scoring more runs. It’s easy to sit here and nitpick and see what we could maybe have done different. But ultimately we have to be better if we want to win the division and get to where we want to be at, which is win the World Series. So I’m pleased with the way we played in the first half but I’m not pleased we’re not in first place in the division. So we’ve got some work to do.

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