AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: YANKEES VS ASTROS

October 23, 2022

Aaron Boone

Yankee Stadium

New York Yankees

Pregame 4 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with questions for Aaron.

Q. Knowing what's at stake tonight, win or go home essentially what do you say to your team heading into this one?

AARON BOONE: Keep it small, try and win the next play. Go out and try and win pitches in that first inning and keep the focus in that regard real small knowing we got to win a game today, and then we can move forward from that.

But just focus on getting ready. Obviously, we got another tough pitcher going against us. We get to send Nestor to the mound, which we're thrilled about. It's an opportunity to go win a baseball game in the postseason.

Q. You decided to go with IKF at shortstop again. What went into that decision? Why was he the right call for today?

AARON BOONE: I wanted to go with him. Once I decided that I wasn't going to go with Carp today, IKF was the guy I was going to go with.

Q. Have you contemplated at all the fact that this could be Judge's last game as a Yankee tonight and what that would mean as we go into the off-season in the future?

AARON BOONE: No. No. Trying to get ready to try and go win a baseball game. That's as far as I'm looking.

Q. In a situation like this when you're facing elimination, would you likely interact with your players more, whether it's formally or informally, or just treat it like any other day?

AARON BOONE: I interact with them informally and formally kind of every day, like buzz certain guys, go through, and I'll keep it like that. We have a message through our coaching staff, and we want to keep the process as normal and as focused as we can keep it. But of course checking in and making sure touching different guys is important.

Q. I want to, for clarity sake, when you went out to the mound the second time for Cole, when you stopped, were you looking for him to say, I would like to stay in the game --

AARON BOONE: No, I was listening to make sure I had bought enough time and we were good to go.

Q. But wasn't Trivino up for awhile there?

AARON BOONE: He was, but I just, you know, kind of dotting I's and crossing T's there.

Q. And once Bregman reaches second to begin that, do you feel like Trivino is the right guy there or do you have to treat that like the winning run in some way and get whoever you think is maybe the best reliever in because you're having troubles scoring runs?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, I mean, that's a fair question. That's one way to look at it, but also at that point, I'm kind of thinking if we got to go to someone there early in the 6th, I'm going to need 'em all to get back around. I did like Trivino at the bottom of the lineup there.

But I think there's a case, especially once you get the bases loaded there, that Holmes or even Loáisiga could have been in play there.

Q. The IKF decision, how much of that is based on the fact that, generally speaking, he does make a lot of contact and that's what you guys are looking for?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, and I feel like IKF has had good at-bats in this postseason and, yeah, he's a guy that all year has had that ability to get a hit. He's hit well with runners in scoring position. So, sure that factors in.

Q. Also with Donaldson with how much he struggled was there any thought of maybe dropping him in the lineup today?

AARON BOONE: No, no. I dropped him a little bit yesterday, but no. Look, we've struggled as a group. We've all struggled. J.D.'s been getting on base. He's kind of born the brunt of this for some reason. But we got to get it going as a group.

Q. I think some of your hitters have talked about they have gotten some mistakes but you just haven't capitalized on them. Is that anything to do with process or being tight? You took advantage of that a lot for a long period of the season. Why are you not now?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, I felt like yesterday we had some chances there against Javier. I thought we got some pitches. Again, it's that razor-thin line sometimes between a guy really going well, maybe a guy scuffling a little bit. Sometimes that difference is when you do get a pitch and you make a good swing decision on it, you know, fouling it off as opposed to a ball you would hit in the gap.

That's baseball. And that's the difference between having success and having a game where you get shut down. I thought we had some chances yesterday. Hopefully we get some more and are able to take advantage of them today.

Q. Yesterday specifically I know there was a good pitcher out there, but being down 0-2, guys sensing that they have to do more, is that a factor?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. At this point that's got to be something that we need to make sure works in our favor. We got to take advantage of that energy of knowing we're against it.