AL DIVISION SERIES: GUARDIANS VS YANKEES

October 15, 2022

Aaron Boone

Progressive Field

New York Yankees

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Guardians - 6, Yankees - 5

Q. Aaron, what went into the decision to go to Clarke Schmidt in that situation there in the 9th?

AARON BOONE: I just felt like Wandy was -- you know, we pushed him further than we wanted to tonight, and, you know, after a couple guys got on there, I just felt like he was at the end of the line.

Q. Did you have Clay Holmes available?

AARON BOONE: No, no. I mean, he was down there available, but we felt like it was -- you know, we were putting him in a tough situation.

Q. He threw just 16 pitches yesterday, threw just twice --

AARON BOONE: Yeah. I mean, part of the thing with him being available for this series, was not really in a back-to-back situation yet. He just hadn't thrown any live or anything. So while he was pretty good today and I fully expect him available tomorrow, it just felt like we needed to stay away there.

Q. So did you know, going into the game, you didn't have him, or was it --

AARON BOONE: It was really the emergency situation.

Q. Aaron, just to be clear, though, nothing additionally wrong?

AARON BOONE: No, no. Just normal, you know, soreness. But nothing we're alarmed at, no.

Q. What's the mindset now, going into tomorrow, elimination game with Gerrit on the mound?

AARON BOONE: Yeah. Love that Gerrit's on the mound. Let's go get it. Tonight obviously was a gut-wrenching ending, but we got to get over it. Now we're obviously up against it, but I still love our chances. Got Gerrit going tomorrow. Got to go take care of business and try and get back to New York.

Q. What was your view of Cabrera's approach there? Any consideration to using a defensive replacement? You have Hicks on the roster.

AARON BOONE: No, no. He's shown us a lot. I think that's just a no-man's-land ball. Credit to them, they put it in play in that inning, but just a lot of perfect placed ones in there too. And then a great two-strike at-bat by Gonzalez to finish it off. But, no, I think that's just one of those that falls in no-man's land there. I loved what I've seen from Oswaldo out there.

Q. Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been having trouble misplaying balls. That's what it looked like. What have you been seeing from him and if anything is sort of going wrong there?

AARON BOONE: Kind of it looked like he maybe cut that ball a little bit. Made a good play on the backhand, and then kind of cut on him. I think he was beating it anyway. Just another kind of fast guy down there that gets down the line really well.

So, yeah, I think he just kind of cut on him a little bit.

Q. Aaron, you knew going in that the bullpen was going to be -- you know, you weren't going to have the specific lanes a lot of the time. It was going to be what you felt. When you met with Peralta tonight, you said you felt like you couldn't push him any further. How hard is that to navigate without the lanes, with you trying to -- no Holmes tonight.

AARON BOONE: Yeah, I mean, you know, these guys -- these guys are game, especially Wandy, you know, wants the ball. When I went to him before the 9th, like, hey, are you good? I want to send you back out there. And he wanted it, but that's just who he is.

But I knew I couldn't really go wrong with him, especially after getting a number of outs yesterday and him recently coming back off the IL too. It's like you throw all this, you start putting yourself in jeopardy. So I thought he threw the ball really well, though, even in that inning where he gave up a couple of bloop hits there that chased him.

I thought he was really on point tonight.

Q. Aaron, I know you called it gut-wrenching, but do you think that kind of loss can carry over into tomorrow and it's hard to have selective amnesia?

AARON BOONE: Hell no. No, not allowed to. We'll be ready to go.

Q. Did you feel like Judge's homer had kind of like de-stressed both him and your team and that that kind of put you in a good position for the game?

AARON BOONE: Yeah. You know, obviously, I felt like the start we got off to tonight, the first couple innings where Sevey was really grinding, to be able to limit them to two runs there in the first couple innings, that was great. And then Judgy hit the homer, it does settle us a little bit and inject some life into us. I felt we played a really good game from that point on.

Sevey pitched well. We were able to tack on. I thought all the relievers threw the ball well. You know, just got a little unfortunate there in the 9th where I thought guys -- even Clarke there, I thought he didn't -- you know, he was making pitches. I'd have to see the last one. Maybe one that he wants to expand a little bit with, maybe too much of a strike there.

But, you know, his back's against the wall, and, you know, executes pitches to Naylor there, a really tough match-up. Gets two strikes and can't finish him off. So you know, it's a tough one. But we got to move on.

Q. Does losing when you get that kind of bump from Judge make anything tougher because it's kind of generally --

AARON BOONE: No, no. Move on. It stings right now, and it's raw. You know, you're frustrated because you're so close to the end there, but we got to turn the page. It's not allowed to be the case. We got to come out here. We got Gerrit going tomorrow. We expect to come out here and win.

Q. Back to the Cabrera bloop, what did you think of IKF's throw-back?

AARON BOONE: I think he saw Straw halfway, and I was surprised too that Straw turned around, went to first. I think he saw there was no play at 2nd, which there wasn't had he ran initially. Obviously, threw it into third and that's when Straw actually went.

So, yeah, that's what happened there.