Carlos Mendoza and Harrison are looking forward to the Subway Series from the other side

Since the Mets and Yankees have played three games against each other in spring training, it is no longer new for Carlos Mendoza to refer to the opposing New York team as “they.”

Mendoza spent fifteen years as a Yankees minor league and major league coach and is now halfway through a season in his first MLB managerial job, but he didn’t want to get too nostalgic as he prepared for his first Subway Series as Mets manager.

The Mets have two games left against their Bronx neighbors and are more interested in continuing their recent surge than in the other hype.

“They have a good team,” said Mendoza. “We have a good team and we play well.”

Mendoza still chats occasionally with his old friend Aaron Boone, the Yankees’ manager, but Tuesday and Wednesday at Citi Field will be more businesslike.

Harrison Bader, a New Yorker who played on the other side in the Subway Series and shared a dugout with Mendoza, was asked what it must be like for the Mets manager, since Mendoza helped develop and nurture many Yankees players.

“Go out there and kick some ass — that’s all,” Bader said. “If anything, (the Subway Series) reinforces the gratitude we feel for the possibilities of the game. I’m excited for (Mendoza) to experience it. I’m excited for me to experience it. I’m going to be on the other side now and I’m going to embrace it and throw myself into it and I’m going to have as much fun as I possibly can.”

This is not the first time that a former Yankees player or coach has coached the Mets in the Subway Series.

Willie Randolph was the Mets manager from 2005 to 2008 and saw this happen. Buck Showalter was the Mets manager for the last two seasons.

“There are always a few pitfalls,” Boone said. “Mendy has been such an important part of this organization for so long and now he’s helping lead this organization. Yeah, it’s going to be a little weird. We did it in spring training where we saw him, but now those count. It’s certainly going to be fun to see him.”

The Mets were impressive in June with a 13-6 record that includes four consecutive Series wins.

To continue this streak, they would have to win the two games in Queens against the Yankees.

Mendoza changed his pitching rotation last week, starting David Peterson on Tuesday after deciding that Luis Severino should start against the Cubs.

Severino responded on Sunday with one of his best performances of the season, striking out 10 players in six scoreless innings.

Now it’s Peterson’s job – his opponent on the mound is Gerrit Cole – to confirm the second half of Mendoza’s rotation change.

For Peterson, the challenge begins with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, but it doesn’t end there.

“They have a great lineup,” Peterson said. “Statistically and historically, those guys are two of the best hitters we have in the game right now, so it doesn’t change anything for me. I could go up against the guy with the highest or lowest stats in the league and it’s still the major leagues.”

Bader, who grew up attending the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, welcomes the variety these games bring.

“It’s a subway series,” Bader said. “If we were just playing another team, it wouldn’t be a title. When two New York teams play each other, there’s something like a motto. As a little boy, as a fan, I loved that. I loved the emotion of all the back and forth. We all want to lift a trophy in New York. That’s our dream.”

—Additional reporting by Greg Joyce