AL WILDCARD GAME: RED SOX VS YANKEES

October 5, 2021

Giancarlo Stanton

Fenway Park

New York Yankees

Postgame Press Conference

Red Sox 6, Yankees 2

Q. What made Eovaldi so tough on you guys tonight?

GIANCARLO STANTON: He was working all of his pitches. He had his heater and when you can put 100 wherever you want it, that's going to put a -- makes the off-speed pitches a lot better, but yeah, he was locating well.

Q. Considering the way he had been throwing and the way the Red Sox offense jumped out, did it feel like a much bigger hill to climb?

GIANCARLO STANTON: Yeah, you never want to get down in a win-or-go-home, but yeah, if there's outs left, we have a chance, so that's how you've got to go into it.

Q. Were you surprised that Judge was sent there on that ball in the sixth?

GIANCARLO STANTON: No. I mean, it was bang-bang, had to be two relatively perfect throws to get them out, and so yeah, you can take the chance there.

Q. We talked to your manager about how his situation will be up in the air a little bit this off-season. Just what's it been like having Aaron Boone as the manager for your time here?

GIANCARLO STANTON: It's been great. We've been here the same amount of time, so we watched each other grow in this uniform and been through it all together. So it's been great with him.

Q. I know you're not someone that looks back and does the shoulda, woulda, coulda, but was there a moment where you guys think if you had one more game you would be hosting this game at home, and some of the balls you hit at the monster probably would have been home runs?

GIANCARLO STANTON: Yeah, that's a shoulda, woulda, coulda game that you can play. Each game counts, doesn't matter if it's in March, April. All we needed was one more and we would have this at home. So yeah, they will come back to bite you.

Q. Aaron Boone told us that he has a nice message about the group of guys that he's been competing against. What was special of anything that he said tonight?

GIANCARLO STANTON: Yeah, it's just a tough spot for all of us and words of encouragement and ideas to improve and what we need to do to make this next step and go from there.

Q. Xander said the play in the 6th throwing Judge out a home plate changed the game and the momentum. Did that feel like an inflection point to you guys in the dugout? Was there frustration? Was it tough to come back from that?

GIANCARLO STANTON: That was an important point in the game and definitely changed the momentum, but at the same time, these are games where you just keep fighting. But obviously you'd like to get a run there and with one out and a man on second, but you know, that's how the game goes.

Q. Did you feel particularly frustrated? It looked like you were pretty bad out on the field.

GIANCARLO STANTON: Yeah, I was upset. That probably would have left most anywhere. So that would have, you know, that would have changed the course of the game and not for my benefit but he would have been out at home and we would have been tied. Yeah, I was pretty upset about that.

Q. You guys ended up with, I think, eight runs in your last four games. I think 45 times this year, you guys had two or less. I think maybe 70 times three or less, and you guys have stars all through your lineup. Is that baffling when you look at how many games you guys did not score many runs, and did that make you wonder if the lineup needs to be constructed maybe a little differently to have a little bit -- you did get some balance this year but maybe some more single-type hitters and maybe not all sluggers?

GIANCARLO STANTON: Yeah, I feel like top to bottom, we all could have done more in our ballpark. Yeah, I'm not going to pick apart the year. Just this game was unfortunate to end our season and yeah, that's where we're at.

Q. Is that baffling, you know, when you hear those numbers of how many times you guys have scored two or three runs or less?

GIANCARLO STANTON: I played in all of them so that's not baffling. That's just what it is. We all could have done better at certain points of the year and that's how the year went. FastScripts by ASAP Sports ...