AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: YANKEES VS ASTROS

October 21, 2022

Aaron Boone

Yankee Stadium

New York Yankees

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. We hear the phrase "must win" a lot. I know tomorrow is not an elimination game, but how much in your mind is tomorrow a must-win situation?

AARON BOONE: I mean, yeah, I don't even look at it like that. It's like we're doing all we can to try and win. We know we're coming home obviously to play tomorrow, which we're excited about. We're giving the ball to Gerrit Cole and hopefully he can go out. And I feel like we've done a decent job of attacking these guys. Hopefully he can eliminate, hold them down and get us off to a good start, and then we can do enough offensively.

So we know we're up against it, certainly, but we look forward to going out and trying to win a baseball game. That's kind of as far as we look into it.

Q. Just two quick player questions. Left field at Yankee Stadium is a different animal than Minute Maid Park. How do you anticipate deploying Giancarlo? And then the second one was Peraza acquitted himself really well last night. How likely is it he will start Game 3 at short?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. I'm kind of working through that today and certainly tomorrow. We got Cristian Javier going, so I'll consider all that. Giancarlo I feel like bounced back pretty well yesterday from his first day being out there, obviously an off day today. But I haven't decided on how I'm going to go in that direction yet.

Q. With the lineup you had Bader up against the lefty at the top. Are you considering him in front of Judge again at the top for the next game?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, it's definitely something I'm considering as we try and find a way to score some runs. Obviously he's putting together good at-bats, had a couple more good at-bats getting on base last night. So, yeah, that's something that I'm probably leaning that way.

Q. There was a question asked today about Bader didn't know he was leading off when he was asked about it, and it spoke to some sort of communication problem. Did you feel that that was the case? Was there some sort of disconnect in telling him he was leading off or anything?

AARON BOONE: No. No. We send out the lineup ahead of time. Some guys are vigilant at making sure, some guys come in and they just, it's play ball and it's like -- and then look and see where you're at later. That's just an individual thing sometimes.

Q. Gerrit's pitched actually better than his average this year during games where you guys don't score a whole lot of runs. Do you find that he changes his approach or his mentality when maybe the hits aren't coming the way you guys are used to?

AARON BOONE: I don't think so. Gerrit's pretty consistent in how he goes about things and his process, and I feel like pretty intense no matter what. Like, he's locked in every day and really one of those guys that's hooked up every day and invested in everything, even on the days he doesn't pitch. But on the days he's pitching, there's an energy and a focus and an intensity that I don't think really changes based on score.

Q. The reliance on home runs when you guys are doing well, is that just who you are or is it overly reliant where in some of these games when you can't produce long balls, it make it's difficult for you?

AARON BOONE: I mean, it gets difficult in the postseason. Look, we're constantly searching for a more perfect, the most perfect offense, right? You're chasing that. Every team is. You want to be the best you can be.

Elite contact skills is a skill, it's a valued thing. I would love to have everyone be .300 hitters and 30 homer guys. That's what you're chasing, you're chasing a perfect, great offense, and you know, hard in this day and age to not be a team that hits the ball out of the ballpark to be an elite offense, and certainly in the postseason, regardless of what people say, the home run ball is enormous. You got to take advantage of mistakes against great pitching, but you also got to find a way in some of these games when you do have opportunities, you know, it is that big hit, it is that big, you know, put a ball in play.

And as we've struggled here to put the ball in play consistently here these first two games, you know, the one thing yesterday is when we needed the ball in play, that's what allowed us to get our two runs. So that was at least encouraging. Now we got to find a way against a great pitching staff, though, to do a little bit of both, to take advantage of our mistakes -- you know, I still think it's very important that we put a premium on controlling the strike zone because making really good swing decisions is always important. It's really important in the postseason because when you start chasing, I'm going to go touch the ball, you start leaving the strike zone against elite pitching and you're in trouble.

So there's that balance. You got to understand situationally that you've got to be able to do little things and shorten up in certain situations, which I felt like when we had a chance to score last night, that happened. But you got to be disciplined in the strike zone against great pitching.

Q. Are you locked in that Taillon would be your starter for Game 5?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, that's where I'm at right now on it. Yeah, hard to envision going any other way, yeah.

Q. Is everything good with Lou Trivino? He's obviously pitched the series, but outings have been a little short towards the end of the regular season, a little bit of sporadic use. Just checking in there.

AARON BOONE: Yeah, Lou's great. At the end of the season he had a couple days where his back locked up on him where he didn't pitch a couple days, but, yeah, he's good to go.

Q. Do you have options for Donaldson right now? You've got Kiner-Falefa, you've got Cabrera, who can play third base, and Donaldson is still kind of searching. I know he's had a couple of big walks and things like that. But as your struggling for offense the first couple of games, are you considering any change there?

AARON BOONE: No, no. As we struggle for offense, period, it's interesting that everyone jumps on him. I mean, he's got on at a 40 percent clip in the postseason so far for all his struggles, his, quote, struggles. So we need him. We need him to do something big within this series. We need to get that rolling.

But that's with everyone. We're up against a great pitching staff top to bottom and we got to find ways to score runs, and that comes in obviously the ability to get on base, also a big hit, and also when we get that mistake really sticking it. So, no, no plans there.

Q. Not picking on him specifically because you're right everybody struggled, but he clearly has had a higher strikeout rate this year, lower walk rate this year, and all season he never really found that hot streak. I mean, what did you see from him and continue to see just in his at-bats?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, I think they have pitched, different teams have pitched him differently all year. I think at times when he struggled, he's been a little bit of that in between where you're trying to cover a couple different speeds, so you're a little in between with your timing. I think that's probably been the biggest thing from a consistency standpoint that he's struggled with.

But he's also gotten a lot of big hits for us, and we got to continue to trust that he's going to, he's got a chance to change a game for us and really produce one of those heavy at-bats in what we hope is a long line of those.

Q. Last night Stanton said something about the way you guys are struggling, maybe a change in approach at the plate just offensively was in order, focusing more on contact. But you guys are pretty steadfast in your approach offensively. Is there anything you can do at this point to counter attack what Houston is doing or do you just want them to do what they have been doing all year?

AARON BOONE: No, you've got to be able to make series adjustments, in-game adjustments. That's all part of the game. So hopefully we're able to do that.

I don't think there's any abandoning of a certain thing. You got to understand that, especially when you're up against elite pitching, you got to find a way. Sometimes that calls in a situation of shortening up. Where are you in the count. What's the situation of the game. What's the scoreboard telling you. Those things are all part of being a really good major league hitter and offense and you got to play to that.

But I don't think there's a drastic change in approach now of what we do. At the end of the day it comes down to making great swing decisions, controlling the strike zone and then playing the game within the game when that calls for it.

Q. You mentioned you were able to put the ball in play when you needed to yesterday. Also 30 strikeouts in two games. Have you been happy with the approach through the two games, results aside?

AARON BOONE: I mean 30 strikeouts is, that's too much. We know we got to be better than that.

I'm just talking about -- sometimes when that narrative grabs hold and then you have had a couple of rough games, the thing that -- and I think this happened to us as an offense last year at times. When that groundswell starts to happen and guys start to feel that, you start thinking, I'm going to go up there and touch the ball.

And that's a dangerous place to go because you start expanding. And that's what crappy offenses do. Right?

You know, contact is incredibly important, especially in certain situations. But I would argue that controlling the strike zone is more important. And getting a good pitch to hit is more important. And sometimes when you get so focused on, I'm going to go touch the ball, you start expanding the strike zone. And when you do that against a Houston Astro pitching staff you're in trouble and you're playing into their hands. So you got to be able to strike that balance of understanding situational hitting. When does contact become really important. Slowing things down so I know when I've got to be able to shorten up. Knowing when I've got count leverage. Things like that. Those things all become really important. And being able to understand and process that and slow all that down in the moment is critical.

Q. As far as you and your staff reviewing what happened in the first two games. I know baseball isn't played within a crystal ball. But as you guys have seen what maybe you haven't done right, going forward to be successful if I said, What are X, Y and Z that you need to do well to turn this series around, what would X, Y and Z be?

AARON BOONE: I think it's just, not impossible, but hard to win when you score two runs. And we understand the challenge again this Houston staff, from a starting rotation to all the depth in their bullpen, provide and create. But we've got to find a way to do that.

And I think that's a collective effort. You hear us talk about passing the baton and things like that. That happened all year. It's not always an at-bat that results in a base hit or a home run or a walk or a score, but it's the collective taking on really hard, tough grind-it-out at-bats that hopefully serve us well as the game continues to move forward and netting a mistake or putting a guy in trouble or keeping the pressure on the entire time.

I think that's the most important thing. Especially right now when it's really hard. And we got to find a way. I think that happens with collectively, as a group, winning pitches, forcing them to be at their absolute best all the time. And hopefully over the course of a game that shows up eventually in some mistakes for guys that we're able to take advantage of.