AL WILDCARD GAME: RED SOX VS YANKEES

October 5, 2021

Kyle Schwarber

Fenway Park

Boston Red Sox

Postgame Press Conference

Red Sox 6, Yankees 2

KYLE SCHWARBER: Unbelievable, National Anthem, flag drops on the wall, military members out there. After that, getting your name announced before that, too, just how crazy. And the Bogaerts homer in the first inning, I mean, talk about a pop, and you know, the crowd went nuts, and you feed off that energy. You thrive for that, and Red Sox nation brought it tonight. We needed it, and you can't say enough about the crowd tonight.

Q. A lot of times, over recent years, what allowed you guys to do that that well and how do you to get on top of that 97-mile-an-hour fastball that's above the zone to drive it out?

KYLE SCHWARBER: These guys have faced them a lot more than probably what I have, but I faced them back when he was in Pittsburgh and I think once with the Astros. And, you know, I think we did a really good job of just making sure that we got them in the zone, guys taking walks, guys coming up with big hits, and you know, it was a total team effort there. And to be able to get him out at that point in the game was big for us, to be able to get to the pen and to keep adding on more.

And, you know, yeah, the swing there, I mean, two strikes, you see the fastball up and, you know, it looks good to the eyes. And it's probably -- it was a ball, and it was, you know, able to get the barrel to it and put a good swing on it. I mean, the crowd was electric there, and it definitely made me get to a point where I didn't really know what I was doing running the bases. But it was definitely -- yeah, that's a home run I won't forget.

Q. Can you talk about Eovaldi?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, Eovaldi, you look at the game beforehand that he pitched against the Yankees and then you see what he does tonight. Very stoic on the mound, going up there and filling up the zone and challenging guys. That was huge. Definitely I think that was -- if I could label a game that I've seen Nate Eovaldi pitch, that would be No. 1. It was phenomenal. It was exactly what we needed out of the guy and he came out and he delivered.

Q. You talked about it earlier, but when Aaron Boone came out to take out Cole, the crowd erupted. Just what were the thoughts within the dugout as he was getting taken out of the game?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Gerrit is one of the best pitchers in the game. That's one of the reasons he got paid that much money. He's one of the best pitchers in the game. And for us to have the at-bats that we did against him and to get him out early in the game was a positive for us, to be able to get to that bullpen and to start chipping away at those guys.

You tip your cap to Gerrit for the year he had this year. I don't know what his standards were, but looked like it was a pretty good year for him. For us to get to him early, that was a huge win for us. That's what we wanted to do. We wanted to make sure that we go out there, attack our game plan, get strikes, get strikes, swing at them and not miss, and if it's not in the zone, be able to take a walk.

Q. What's a game like that do for you guys momentum-wise launching forward?

KYLE SCHWARBER: It's big for us. Obviously we are going to enjoy this tonight. It's a well-deserved win tonight. You know, I don't think there's many people that picked us to win this game. We all have faith in ourselves. We knew what we were going to go out there and do tonight, and we just had to execute and we did. So we are going to enjoy tonight, and whenever we are going to Tampa, probably sometime tomorrow, we'll get locked in for that next series.

But definitely big momentum for us, and you know, I mean, talk about big plays by a big player tonight in Xander, too. Big homer, and Kiké with the great relay to him, to be able to keep that -- if I could label play of the game, that would be play of the game for me, where Xander holes him down at the plate and keeps it from a 3-1 game instead of a 3-2 game.

Q. All year long, the team has relished being an underdog. When you came here, did you sense that chip on their shoulder in the clubhouse?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Definitely. I definitely see that. They weren't expected to be at that point when I was traded over here, and there was definitely the little chip there, too, on the shoulder that, you know, we lost the lead in the division.

You know, this team knows what they are capable of doing, and it's just -- it was baseball there. You hit that little slow speed bump there, and you know, we were able to kind of pick it back up. And talk about the adversity that this team faced after that, as well, with the COVID outbreak, that revolving door of guys being able to come in and fill roles.

Talk about what a heck of a job all those guys did of coming in and filling roles and being able to put us in the position we were in today. It was huge. And we were able to go out there and take care of business.

Q. Obviously you were fired up with that home run, got the dugout going and you admired it for a second. Is that as fired up as you've been in a long time about a homer?

KYLE SCHWARBER: That was a fun one. I mean, you hit it -- and every run matters in these types of games, especially in the postseason. Every run matters. And you know, it doesn't matter how early or how late it is. You want to be able to keep tacking on runs. Yeah, you know, it might have been probably a little bit of overkill on my part, but I was excited and just wanted to keep the momentum going on our side.

You know, obviously, I probably didn't know what I was doing; I didn't. I was just excited that the ball was able to get out of the park, and not trying to show anyone -- trying to keep the energy going on our side.

Q. Can you describe the roller coaster of emotions, not just in the game but leading up to a winner-take-all game like this and how do you use that to your advantage?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, obviously leading up to it, you're in the midst of it and you come in and you get swept by the Yankees at our place and then we were able to go on the road. It was definitely a hard last six games against Baltimore and even Washington. You're going out there and the writing's on the wall of what we need to do.

But you try not to press or anything like that. But it can be -- you know, we're human. We're human. We know what we need to do, but you want to be confident in everything that we're doing on the field and it wasn't easy. But we were able to come through and we were able to get the job done.

And then to be able to be in this spot today with the winner-take-all kind of deal, we've got to be able to take care of the little things. We did that great today. We played exceptional defense. Eovaldi pitched his spot in the bullpen and the guys that came in behind him pitched their tails off and the offensive side of the baseball, we executed our game plan.

Like I said the day before, that we were going to go out there and win or lose, we want to be able to go out there and feel good about it at the end of the day. We felt like we executed our game plan today, and we're going to walk away with a win and we're happy about it.

Q. Even though Xander was in a pretty bad slump the last nine, ten games of the season, how much did you feel he was on the verge of a moment like he had there in the first inning?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, seeing the work that that guy puts in on a daily basis, it is great work. This game can kick you in the butt sometimes where you can be going really good and then you show up the next day and you don't know what this thing is in your hands. It's a crazy game.

But to see the work that that guy put on on a daily basis, to be able to put himself in a great position tonight, and a game that, you know, it was win-or-go-home means a lot to us as a team. And the guy who has been here through multiple championships stepped up tonight and do it, phenomenal. You can't say enough good things about Bogaerts. You can't say enough good things about what he brings to your ballclub.