Q. With your team having never faced him before, what type of a challenge do you think Yesavage is going to be this afternoon?
AARON BOONE: Obviously a first rounder last year and kind of rifled through their system this year. He looks tough. He looks good. He's obviously had some success here to start out his Big League career. Kind of a unique delivery, real over the top, downhill, obviously a very good split-fingered. Typically tough on lefties, and obviously we run a lot of those out there.
Important for us to go out and control the strike zone and hopefully take advantage of some pitches we get to hit.
Q. You mentioned the fact that he's tough on lefties. Any consideration to Goldschmidt at first base?
AARON BOONE: A little bit. I definitely deliberated on that a little while, but also trust in Benny's ability to control the strike zone and obviously impact the ball. So I did, but ultimately settled on Benny again today.
Q. José Caballero was just in here and he talked about the team's winning mentality and how it shows itself after wins and after losses. From your perspective, how does that manifest itself, and how important is it in what you did against Boston and what you need to do now?
AARON BOONE: I think it's an important trait to have in Major League Baseball for a team. You've got to be able to handle the good and the bad and everything in between. That shows itself all year. Times where you go through adversity where you're struggling, you've got to be able to handle it and not crumble and stay the course and make necessary adjustments and things like that.
But you also can't ride the roller coaster, especially given now in the playoffs where everything is so -- obviously you're playing for everything, and everything's on the line, and every play is so important.
You've got to keep moving. Every loss in the playoffs feels gut wrenching, but you've got to be able to get past that. I feel like that's something we've been good at here for really the last couple years. And it's a testament to, I think, the leadership in our room, the Judges and Stantons and Coles and Frieds of the world that set the right kind of tone and try and keep that same kind of neutral environment as much as you can, through the ups and downs of a season, through the ups and downs of a postseason.
Q. Aaron Judge yesterday, his throw was around 90 miles an hour. How encouraging was that, and how have you seen him in right field over the last week or two?
AARON BOONE: Yeah, good. I feel like it's steadily gotten better. I know even talking with him after having to get rid of a couple throws yesterday, he said he felt good, and that's different than four weeks ago. Hopefully we continue to make steady improvements out there while also just being smart.
But I think he's done a great job out there. But good to see. There's been a handful he's had to let go of a little bit, and he has.
Q. Max Fried has had some really, really dominant starts against the Blue Jays this year and then some tougher ones in the middle of the season. What was the thing that allowed him to dominate them when he did pitch well at the beginning and end of the year?
AARON BOONE: I think that's a little bit reflective of his season too. So when he faced the Jays at different times -- he really had a season if you -- six months where four and a half, five months of that was the highest caliber, like that Cy Young kind of in that conversation season.
He had that stretch, whenever it was, where I'm sure the Blue Jays were in one of those starts at least, where he had six or seven starts where he was just off a little bit and just went through it a little bit.
I think the biggest thing is one of his strengths is his arsenal, the vastness of it, the many different weapons he has in any given outing to beat you and to be successful. I think he's gotten back to that once he went through that stretch where he's probably a little more predictable, leaning on one or two things a little too much. Like having a presence with everything on any given outing is critical for him, and he's done a really good job with that here the last month and a half.
Q. You talked in the past about striking the balance between respecting the process and reacting in the game. After the loss yesterday, how hard is that balance for tonight?
AARON BOONE: It's who we are, what we do. I expect us to go out and play well today. We want to win the day. That's been the mindset of this team, especially the final two months of the season where we really started to play well after going through a period of the time in the middle of the season where we really struggled. The mindset's been excellent. The focus has been there. The caliber of play has been there.
You're going to have losses along the way. You've got to be able to bounce back from them, especially now. Whatever happens today, win or lose, like I expect we'll be ready to go and put our best foot forward.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports