AL DIVISION SERIES: ROYALS VS YANKEES

October 9, 2024

Aaron Boone

Kauffman Stadium

New York Yankees

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Yankees 3, Royals 2.

Q. (Indiscernible).

AARON BOONE: Yeah, he's so good at locking in in these big games. He's done it throughout his career with us. He's just really able to focus pitch to pitch. I thought that at-bat off Bubic was just phenomenal. I think he went up there looking to do damage, looking to do just that. I thought laid off all the right pitches and just put a great swing on it on what was obviously a great night for him, including adding the stolen base for good measure.

Q. I'm really impressed with the discipline that the team is showing. The Royals very rarely give up walks like this, and your team has been getting a lot of bases on balls. What do you attribute that to?

AARON BOONE: That's who we are. That's our DNA. That's what we try to do. From day one in Spring Training that's what we talk about and these guys go out and live that. It's like we haven't really broke through in a huge way yet, but we're giving ourselves a lot of opportunities against a really good pitching staff.

They bring in great arms out of the pen, they run outstanding starting pitchers out there. So it's not easy. I feel like even in the second game where we only scored two, we've given ourselves a lot of chances in the first few games with plate discipline. Hopefully we really break through in one of these. But I've been really pleased up and down with the quality of the at-bats.

You're not always going to get a hit, you're not always going to get a result, but I feel like the quality the at-bat has been there.

Q. Schmidt tonight had them handcuffed until two out in the fifth but couldn't ask for much more.

AARON BOONE: Yeah, he was great. Gives up the infield hit with two outs there to Frazier and then gets ahead of Isbel and isn't able to put him away. And then Massey hurt him.

But yeah, I thought Clark was excellent. I thought he was really in control of what he was doing. I thought his stuff was good. His execution for the most part was good. Just not able to quite finish off that inning, but yeah, he gave us what we needed.

Q. What did you see on the foul ball?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. I haven't gone back now and looked at all the replays. We thought it was super close. I don't know. What did you guys see? I don't know if there's more angles or whatever. It felt like looking up there like that one angle -- I'm saying it's touching the line, but he probably also realized that this may be standing, too. So that's it.

Q. So much attention has been paid to Judge and Soto, rightly so. But from time to time and this would be one of those time, you're reminded what a weapon Stanton is.

AARON BOONE: He's a killer. It's remarkable or I just admire how well he's able to focus in these big moments and just go to a different place mentally. Again, the at-bat on the home run was phenomenal. I think he went up there to do that and off a really tough reliever in Bubic who's a neutral guy that gets righties and lefties out.

I thought he laid off all the right pitches and got the one he was looking for and didn't miss it. Obviously a huge night for him.

Q. Do you think in some ways he's benefitted by having the attention focused more on Judge and Soto?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. He's an MVP and Giancarlo Stanton, so a lot comes with that. He's just so good at tuning out the noise and getting himself to a place mentally where he's so locked in pitch to pitch and what he's faced with doing and doesn't scare -- doesn't get up or down from a result. It's like he knows how important the next pitch is.

Q. What's the feeling having Gerrit now going in with a chance to --

AARON BOONE: Yeah, obviously this was a big one to get, and excited to give Gerrit the ball. And hopefully he can go out and get us off to a good start tomorrow night, so we always love handing the ball to our ace.

But these games have been obviously really, really tough, and that team is playing really well over there. But we always feel good when we give the ball to Gerrit.

Q. Jazz got a lot of boos from KC fans tonight. How do you feel like he handled it?

AARON BOONE: He handled it well. That's good for the playoffs to have a little bit of that. I don't think he meant any disrespect by it at all. You know, it made for a little better environment.

Q. Each one of your three relievers went at least four outs. Was that just matchups, the way it played out?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, I mean, it's just the way it played out, and coming out of an off-day, felt like we were lined up to do that okay, and hopefully still in a position to be okay with those guys tomorrow.

Q. What did you think of the job your bullpen did?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, they've been excellent. Obviously Clay again tonight coming in at Bobby Witt and going right through the middle of their order with the go-ahead run on third when he first came in and having a clean sixth inning. Tommy was really good. Tommy was really efficient, and to be able to go out there and get that lead out, get Massey out to start things off just to shorten the game enough for Weave. And then even though Weave gave up a couple hits, he was real pitch efficient, too, and benefitted from a great play on a good pitch to Pasquantino. When he first hit that, I'm like oh, no, and here comes Volpe out of nowhere. Yeah, the bullpen was great.