This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here . And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK – The door of the visiting manager’s office at Yankee Stadium had been locked for the evening, and Carlos Mendoza’s knuckles were wrapped around a steering wheel late on Saturday, the Mets manager silently replaying pitch sequences as he battled traffic somewhere on the Grand Central Parkway.

Hours earlier, Mendoza’s team had scored a hard-fought Subway Series triumph over their crosstown rivals, somehow keeping Aaron Judge ’s bat quiet in the process. The manager chuckled softly to no one in particular, unable to shake the lingering feeling that his pitchers had gotten away with something.

“Honestly, I went back

See Full Page