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AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS RED SOX

October 9, 2018

Aaron Boone

New York, New York - postgame 4

Boston - 4, New York - 3

Q. Aaron, what will stand out most to you when you think back to that ninth inning and how it developed and how it ended?
AARON BOONE: Just our competitiveness. We've been through a lot this year, but the one thing I'm most proud of with these guys is they always compete. The Gary at-bat I think is a great example of that. If you fall behind 0-2 against that guy, lay off some tough pitches, battle, battle, and just miss winning the game. It was a great at-bat. But just proud of the way they competed. Just really sucks we came up short.

Q. After the events of last night, what was your thoughts on keeping CC in the game as balls are being hit harder and harder against him?
AARON BOONE: I was fine with the way CC was throwing the ball. He was at the two-out point. We were going to have him go through Bradley, simple as that. We just kind of knew we had our guys lined up enough that we could -- especially had we got to that point, we could get through the game. I think it was a sound decision to move him, allow him to go through Bradley at that point.

Q. Aaron, it's always a little surprising when you guys don't hit here, especially. How shocking was it to see the way your offense was shut down, not once, but twice in this building?
AARON BOONE: Yeah, definitely frustrating, and I think one of their goals in this series was to keep us in the ballpark, and then coming here where we're so good at that, they were able to do it. Credit to them for being able to hold us down and shut us down, but in the end, you don't move on usually when you can't get enough big hits in a series, and they just outplayed us a little bit.

Q. Aaron, is there anything about the makeup or identity of the offense that results in not being able to get the big hit that is something you guys are going to have to take a look at?
AARON BOONE: Well, we want to continue to get better, so we're chasing the perfect offense. As a major league athlete, we're chasing to be the best we can be. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough, and we'll continue to work at getting to that point where we're as complete in every department as we can be, offensively, pitching, defense.

You're always chasing Utopia, you know. We're chasing that.

Q. Aaron, just to clarify with that third inning, you said you resolved CC was going to get through Bradley. As he got the second out?
AARON BOONE: Yeah.

Q. So three more at-bats? Kinsler got the double.
AARON BOONE: Kinsler hit the ball, and then Nunez.

Q. Nunez got the single, and then Bradley.
AARON BOONE: Yeah. So once -- had he gotten Nunez, it might have been the end of his night, but once Nunez got the hit, we weren't going to go to the pen there, we were going to let him face Bradley, the lefty there.

Q. I guess the question is: How seriously did you consider taking CC out earlier, before Kinsler, before Nunez?
AARON BOONE: Not seriously at that point. Obviously, we had Robbie up there, but no, not at that point. We were a hitter away.

Q. Aaron, when you talk about chasing the perfect offense and being more complete, what kind of things would you like to see more? What do you think the offense needs more going forward?
AARON BOONE: Well, you're always chasing to be the most complete hitter you can be, to be the best base-running team. I mean, that's -- we're chasing greatness here. I mean, that's better in every aspect; better at getting on base, better at slugging, better at putting the ball in play. All those things that you work on as a hitter to be the best you can be.

Q. Aaron, understanding that you were comfortable with CC in the third at that point, did you see anything change with him, from maybe the last three or four hitters?
AARON BOONE: Kinsler smoked the ball. I think Gardy got a little turned around there. And then Nunez hit the ball hard, but felt good about him facing Bradley for the last hitter there. It would have been -- had he not gotten through there, it would have been Robbie. Once he did get through, we wanted Britton to start the next inning and go through the top of their order.

Q. In each of the series, the team that had the better starting pitching performance won. Is your rotation good enough to win a Championship?
AARON BOONE: Yeah. Now going forward, what's our rotation going to be? Obviously, we have some decisions, a lot of things are going to happen between obviously now and next year. But I think we're right there knocking on the door to be that, yes. I mean, I think we're very close to being a championship club right now. We just got to continue to improve on the margins in every facet. Pitching is one of those.

Q. You mentioned them keeping you guys in the park. Do you think that's a matter of execution, just ebb and flow, or is there something fundamentally about the type of players you guys need to target to be maybe more complete? Or I guess what part of that to keep you guys in the park?
AARON BOONE: Well, one is execution. I think they did a really good job of game planning, executing for the most part. I mean, I don't know. Do we need to be better? Of course, obviously. I mean, I don't know how to answer that question as far as it wasn't good enough. So we need to be better, simple as that.

As far as targeting, that's for the winner. As the roster changes and adds and subtracts and those kinds of things, and hopefully we'll continue to work towards having the most complete team we can.

Q. Aaron, how would you characterize Stanton's series? He had a lot of chances in big spots for you.
AARON BOONE: Yeah, he threw some hits out there, a little up and down, had some good at-bats, got on base a little bit. Obviously had some chances, some chances where he could have made a big difference with a big hit or whatever, and it just didn't happen in this series. That's part of it. But that's also why we have nine guys. It's not all about one guy, and we just weren't able to get enough.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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