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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: YANKEES VS ASTROS

October 11, 2019

Aaron Judge

Houston, Texas - Workout Day

Q. What do you remember most about the atmosphere here in '17 in the playoffs?
AARON JUDGE: The atmosphere? It was a good atmosphere. The crowd was good. The crowd was into it. It gets loud. It's a dome, basically, so whenever they keep the roof closed it gets pretty loud in here.

Q. This is a matchup that a lot of fans have been anticipating all year. Have you as a team kind of been looking forward to this, top two teams in the league?
AARON JUDGE: That's tough to say. Once you get in the postseason you never know what's going to happen. You always during the regular season try to map it out, like, We'll probably see these guys here and these guys here and these guys later down the road. Once you get in the postseason you never really know what is going to happen. Once we won the three games in Minnesota, we were just waiting around and whoever we get, we get.

We're excited to be here in Houston, excited to be back, and just getting ready to start the CS.

Q. If you gain confidence against pitchers that you do really well against, what does it do for your confidence for pitchers that handle you? How do you deal that? What goes into trying to change that?
AARON JUDGE: If a pitcher has your number, don't do what you keep doing, change up your plan because it's apparently not working. But just going against any pitcher, just come up with a good game plan, stick to it and once the game starts, see how they're trying to pitch to you, see what's working, see what pitches are working for them.

Because sometimes you might face a pitcher, usually you're facing them they have a good fastball slider, good fastball change-up, all of a sudden you see them today and it's like, Wow, their change-up isn't doing much, or He has no feel for his slider. Then you work from there and formulate a new game plan what to try to do.

It's a chess match. It's all about moving your pieces and see what works.

Q. A lot has been made obviously of their starting staff. You've made comments in the past throughout the season that you like facing the best. What is it about the challenge of facing elite pitching that you enjoy?
AARON JUDGE: Just the fire you see from a lot of guys on the mound, especially they've got two great guys that I faced quite a few times, Gerrit Cole and Verlander. You see them on the mound, I'm -- it's my game plan against you, and that's how we're going to dictate that.

When you have a guy that's out there on the mound like that, that's who you want to compete against. Guys that aren't going to shy away in a 3-2 count, ain't going to shy away with guys on base, or if the moment is 2 outs, bases loaded, they're going to go out there and attack you. So whenever you have a guy like that, I love facing guys like that that just leave it all on the line, just leave it all out there and best man wins. It's always been fun competing against those guys.

Q. Gerrit Cole has been on quite the run. What in particular about it has impressed you the most, or what in particular about him impresses you the most?
AARON JUDGE: For him just getting early strikes. I see him either a slider, curveball, change-up, heater, he always gets that first strike, either swinging or he'll put one over the plate.

But like I say, those guys like to establish the at-bat and establish what's going to happen by really dictating that first pitch. So whenever you let those guys get that first pitch strike, you're kind of -- you're in a pretty big hole because it's going to be 0-2 really quick.

That's what I really love watching about Cole especially is just how he's able to go out and works the edges well with all his pitches and just getting that strike one, that's huge, especially in the postseason.

Q. 2017 was your first postseason experience. Looking back at that and then going what you guys went through last year, how different are you as a player and are you better prepared now to get to this point for a chance to maybe go to the World Series?
AARON JUDGE: I think the biggest thing is just getting the experience, getting the experience in front of the fans, in front of the big situations. Because playing in Yankee Stadium with 50,000 yelling and screaming, that's a lot of fun, that's where you want to play.

But in the postseason, it's a whole different animal, no matter where you go. So just getting a lot of games underneath my belt with 50,000 screaming, booing, yelling, all that, just getting used to that. Hey, it's still the same game. He's still 60 feet 6 inches away. It's still 90 feet to first.

That's the biggest thing, once you get experience, now you're comfortable in those situations and then it's just time to roll.

Q. How exciting is it for you to be in this position, with the adversity and the interest that you all went through in order to be here?
AARON JUDGE: Yeah, it's amazing to think about. It's amazing to think about the injuries and the setbacks that we had all season. Despite some of the guys we lost in Spring Training, guys we lost early in the year. We didn't have our ace until just recently, getting Severino back, we missed Giancarlo and me, quite a few guys. I think you can go up and down that whole lineup except for a couple guys that haven't been on the IL for a little bit.

When it comes down to it, going into Spring Training was to win the division. That was our main goal. We talked about in our very first meetings is we have to go out and win our division to set ourselves up for the postseason. And we were able to accomplish that.

And I think everybody just bought in on the idea of -- Booney went up there in front of everybody and said, Hey, I don't care if you guys Double-A, Triple-A, Big League guy fighting for a job, at some point you're going to impact this team and make a difference. And I think guys just bought into that. They said, Hey, I know I might be starting on Double-A or Triple-A, I'm mad I'm not in the Big Leagues, but at some point my number is going to get called and I've got to produce. That's what guys did.

It's fun to be around a group like that that's hungry, that's selfless, and all they want to do is win.

Q. Your point that you made before about Cole getting strike 1. When you have a guy like that that you know might throw you a strike on the first pitch, does that make you want to be more aggressive, swinging early in the count or is that getting you out of whatever plan would be?
AARON JUDGE: It's tough. It's a chess match, you've got have to see how the game is kind of unfolding. A guy like that that's been so successful getting strike 1 and getting ahead, we might see three pitches into the game that his fastball command is a little off. So now it's okay, guys, really shrink that zone into a certain spot or do this and that.

The game plan just depends on the game at hand. Because we've got all these numbers. We've got all these stats, past numbers he did this, or you've got ten for your last this. But you can throw all those numbers out the window when you step between the lines, because anything can happen. It's about watching the game and make your moves from there.

Q. We've talked a lot about that 2017 ALCS. When you think about that series, is there like a moment or a snapshot that comes do into your head? What comes to mind?
AARON JUDGE: I think about, you know, first -- the three games at home, us having the two game deficit and us being able to rally and get three and give us a shot back here for two with Houston. That's what I think about is just how resilient that team was and how they just fought to the very end, fought to the end. Because a lot of teams might have rolled over after go down tow, especially against a team like Houston. We continued to fight. We used our home-field advantage a little bit in those three games.

I think about Game 7, CC going out and wanting the ball and wanting to pitch in that situation, and us just coming up a little short. It was just an intense series all around. Good baseball. They have a good team. They can hit for power and get guys on base, they can steal, good defense, good pitching staff. Same with us, we have guys that can get on base, for power. I'm looking forward to it.

Q. The Astros have made a living off pitching high in the zone, the four seamer, and other teams have caught on. How does one combat that as a batter, what do you do?
AARON JUDGE: Well, it's tough because those high ones out of the hand, it looks like it's right down the middle and all of a sudden it's 99 and it's at your neck, and you're swinging at it. Like, Why did I just swing at that?

The biggest thing as a hitter is just getting ready early. If you're a tad bit late or a tad bit not ready to hit from the very first pitch batting against guys like that you are going to be swinging at stuff you shouldn't be swinging on.

The biggest thing against guys like that that throw up in the zone, have good velocity, and get off-speed pitches, is just get ready early, let your eyes work. The better -- if your head is still and you're able to see the ball better that might give you that extra three or four feet you need to see if that's a fastball I can swing at or that's one I got to take. Just get ready to hit, that's the biggest thing.

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