Chad Bohling, the Yankees’ director of mental conditioning, asked the full squad to think of a word they hoped would describe the 2019 team and bring it to work with them the next day to share with the others.

This was during a pre-workout meeting early in spring training. The hope was that a slogan would be a touchstone, that throughout a long season or in the heat of a contested game, something as simple as a word could break through fatigue and stress as a rallying symbol, a shared ethos.

The players took the assignment seriously and so did their manager. Aaron Boone offered his choice.

“He said ‘let’s be savage,’” recalled Zach Britton. “It wasn’t the only word (from the group), but it is kind of the one that has stuck. It is a word you think of more with football and brute force. But for us it meant let’s play all the innings to the best of our ability. Let’s take great at-bats, not take one pitch off. Let’s maintain focus to be great all the time.”

The word has been used internally all season by the Yankees and, on Thursday, Boone unintentionally shared it with the world. The microphones on the field were hot, and so was the Yankees manager. Thus, Boone’s diatribe against home plate Brennan Miller for missing a few strike calls came through clearly. During his tirade, Boone referred a few times to his hitters as “savages.”

But members of the team say that was specific to the moment. For Boone has appealed to his whole team to be “savage.” When asked, Boone said it means “to be relentless.” Boone recognizes he has a talented roster. But he knows other teams do as well. So he has tried to synthesize grit, focus and daily care and passion in a word as a way to separate the Yankees from other skilled clubs.

“The expectations are obviously very high here,” said bench coach Josh Bard, who filled in as manager Friday night in what would be an 8-2 rout of the Rockies while Boone served a one-game suspension for the tirade. “(Boone) is talking about that there are a lot of games we should win. And there are going to be days when it gets tough and are we going to dig deep.”

In many ways, Boone’s most overt act as a manager obscured that the Yankees spent 18 innings Thursday defining what their skipper craves in savagery.

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The doubleheader against the Rays began with the possibility that Tampa Bay could close to four games out in the AL East or the Yankees could be eight up. Then, two batters into the opener, Domingo German had surrendered a couple of homers. The Rays were starting All-Star Charlie Morton in the nightcap against a Yankees opener followed by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre shuttle master Nestor Cortes Jr.

But after the first two batters of Game 1, the Yankees outscored the Rays 11-1 the rest of the day, swept the twin bill and moved eight games up. Savage.

“The word is a mental trigger for the kind of aggression we want to play with daily — be savage,” Adam Ottavino said. “It is part of the culture. Be aggressive and remember how good you are. Don’t be careful. Let it all hang out. It is a message for everyone on the team. It instills a belief in yourself that you can do something special if you just go for it.”

Yankees personnel mention the mindset helped them thrive despite what could have been a devastating run of injuries.

“Guys are just dogs,” said Dellin Betances, who — like ace Luis Severino — has watched admiringly without throwing a pitch yet this season.

Boone consistently said through the worst of the injured list contagion that the team had enough talent to win, and the depth of skill and character proved that true. As Bard emphasized, “We are really talented, but I have never been part of a group that is this talented and also this tough.”

The next man up has proven more than capable, from Cortes to David Hale, from Gio Urshela to Cameron Maybin, from Thairo Estrada to Mike Tauchman. The whole team has responded. There has been no ace. There has been essentially no Miguel Andujar and Giancarlo Stanton and reduced time from Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks and Didi Gregorius.

Yet the team that played without their suspended manager Friday night had the majors’ best record.

“I think our guys have been savages this year,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “In their approach and results. I think it is infectious. I think our guys are hungry. They have the right attitude. They are wired properly — hungry and thirsty for accomplishment. ‘Savage’ is one way to encompass all of that.”