There's plenty to bark about in the Bronx these days

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 -- Let the record show that the “Bronx Dawgs” were born on the evening of March 31, as Alex Verdugo stood in front of his locker in the visitors' clubhouse of Minute Maid Park, his Yankees just having completed a four-game sweep of the archrival Astros.

Someone asked Verdugo about the impressive series that Juan Soto had put forth, both offensively and defensively. Verdugo glanced toward Soto’s locker, grinned and replied: “I mean, dawg. Just put it like that. He’s a dawg. I can’t say nothing else. We’re dawgs out here.”

It was simple, but it worked. Verdugo’s quip crafted an early-season identity for this Yankees club, prompting choruses of dugout barking after big plays -- and even more behind closed doors. Verdugo, quite plausibly, claims to be the loudest dawg of the group.

Spurred by the club’s 10-3 start, the fans have latched on as well, joining the fun with T-shirts and other canine-related paraphernalia throughout the first homestand. Verdugo said he was inspired by the clubhouse playlist, which includes a few tracks by the rapper DMX, who used barks in the backgrounds of his songs.

“I love it,” Verdugo said. “I love it any time I hear the teammates barking. I’ve got [Anthony] Rizzo throwing up the little, ‘Arf! Arf! Arf!’ So it’s a lot of fun, man. We love it, and we’re running with it.”

Verdugo said that upon arrival at the stadium each day, members of the team start out as a smaller breed of dog. When the lights come on and there’s something to celebrate on the field, they become dawgs.

“We kind of joke every day it’s like a baby Chihuahua,” Verdugo said. “So we start with a baby bark, and the more damage you do, the bass starts going a little deeper, and you start turning into a big dawg. So every day it’s a little dog, and when you do something, you’re a big dawg.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he was amused when he heard Verdugo’s interview, offering a pitch-perfect impression of his outfielder’s raspy exclamation: “Dawgs!”

“I thought it was great,” Boone said. “They’ve taken to it. It’s been fun to watch this group come together. The purpose that this group has, it’s been evident since Day 1 of Spring Training, and even before that. I think that’s a fun little mantra they’ve taken to, that they believe is real and what they want to embody.”

The nickname fits because the Yankees have their share of proud dog dads: not only are Rizzo and Aaron Judge close friends, but their respective dachshunds have enjoyed play dates on the Yankee Stadium turf. In fact, an animated version of Judge is set to appear in the “PAW Patrol” spin-off “Rubble & Crew” this summer.

Verdugo said that he doesn’t own a dog, noting that the demands of pet ownership are difficult with in-season travel, but that’s OK. Thanks to his comment in Houston, he has no shortage of dawgs.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Verdugo said. “I mean, who doesn’t like to bark, right?”