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AL WILDCARD GAME: ATHLETICS VS YANKEES

October 2, 2018

Giancarlo Stanton

New York, New York

Q. How much have you been looking forward to this opportunity to represent the Yankees in the postseason?
GIANCARLO STANTON: All year. You know, it's been a long road so far, and we've got work to do. But it's going to be fun. It's going to be an exciting day tomorrow, and we've got to show out.

Q. Is this why you came to New York? And also, what do you anticipate in terms of the atmosphere tomorrow?
GIANCARLO STANTON: Yeah, for sure. And I anticipate it as crazy as ever tomorrow. I've heard stories about last year, so I expect it up a notch from last year.

Q. You've had a chance to play with Aaron Judge now the whole year. What's the impression that he's left with you as far as how he's handled the expectations, which I know you're familiar with, as well, and anything you picked up that maybe you couldn't have from afar?
GIANCARLO STANTON: He knows what's at stake here, he knows how you need to step up and be kind of the light that people look towards. That's with work ethic, that's how you approach on and off the field, and he's done a great job at it.

Q. Now that you're at this point, how did you find the whole adjustment, transition period to being a Yankee and everything surrounding it?
GIANCARLO STANTON: I mean, all in all, a lot of things were different for me, and that's life. That's coming to a new team. The Yankees are more magnified than most, but you know, you're aware of that going in, and you adjust for things you maybe didn't think about or process before.

Q. Was it harder or easier than you expected?
GIANCARLO STANTON: Honestly, I left it open. It's different things expected, be there and adjust along the way.

Q. How would you sum up your first year here?
GIANCARLO STANTON: A solid year. Not the way I would have liked in terms of full consistency, but solid overall.

Q. As you guys all got healthy again the last couple of weeks of the season, what did you learn about your lineup? You guys all didn't get to play together for a very long time, especially in the second half of the season.
GIANCARLO STANTON: Part of it I think was good for us. We benefitted from it, from having to survive without being full strength, and maybe when the guys got back, we dropped another guy, and just all the things going against us there, and we were still able to put up a 100-win season and still find a way to scrape by when we weren't full strength. I think full strength is coming at the perfect time, and yeah, nothing more you could ask.

Q. Severino is starting the game tomorrow; what have been your impressions of him this year, your first year playing with him?
GIANCARLO STANTON: He's not an easy at-bat, I'll tell you. You guys can say what you want about the beginning of the second half or how he's been, but I wouldn't want to be in there against him. We're going to go into tomorrow ready and knowing he's going to show up.

Q. Right before an elimination game when they might be throwing eight, nine pitchers at you guys, does that change your preparation at all?
GIANCARLO STANTON: Yeah, you've got to be aware of that, but then again, even if they bring a starter in and you beat him up a little bit, you've got to expect a bunch of different pitchers each inning. You've got to be ready on all cylinders.

Q. You talked about all you went through this season and you were able to achieve the 100-win season and all the home runs. Can you put into perspective what's your approach where it's all or nothing or you guys go home?
GIANCARLO STANTON: Yeah, it's a quick turnaround from "how did your season" go to now. That season is over. That's already in the past, even though it's a couple days ago, but now it's postseason. Now it's a brand new start, and we've just got to show up. We've got to be there and not try to do too much, not try to come out of what we've done all year, and just stay in line.

Q. The A's went from last place last season to the playoffs this season. From afar, what stands out about Oakland?
GIANCARLO STANTON: They're hungry. I mean, I think they're tired of getting beat up by the Astros for a couple years and maybe some other guys in their league. But they're hungry. They've got the fight in the guys they've built, and yeah, they're coming in hot.

Q. Back to the question of the bullpen, Oakland is using a bullpen game. What's your impressions of that, and where are we in today's game that a team would do that in the biggest game of the year?
GIANCARLO STANTON: It's a game of adjustments, and that's how it seems, whether it's adjusting to team lineups or just how their starters and relievers match up with teams. In a case like Tampa, they didn't have enough starters, so that's kind of what started them to do that with the relievers, and then it was successful, so a couple other teams started picking it up. You don't know where it's going to go from here, but that's kind of the new age we're in right now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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