Yankees - 9, Blue Jays - 6
Q. How would you describe that emotional roller coaster to stay alive there?
AARON BOONE: Obviously awesome. Just to continue to keep your nose down and compete when it's not looking great. Just a lot of really good quality at-bats to work our way back into it. There were some important plays in the field and in the bullpen, just piecing it together so well without, I think, really overtaxing anyone too, which obviously is big going into another game tomorrow.
Q. Perhaps no swing bigger than Aaron Judge's today in that fourth inning. Off the bat, what are you thinking when you see that ball go towards left field? Are you thinking that's staying fair?
AARON BOONE: I did because it held right away. So I'm -- I have such a good angle from where I sit on fair/foul down the left field line. So I was kind of giving it some body language, but I felt like it was going to hold.
The wind most of the night, you saw in the Barger pop fly, the ball was carrying to left, and that at-bat, when I looked up, the flag was dead. So probably keeping it from maybe blowing it foul or even deeper.
Just a really good swing to keep himself tight to that ball to be able to not spin off and just hook it in to keep it fair.
Q. You were confident in your team before the game, but when you're down 6-1, what are you thinking? Does it change your mindset?
AARON BOONE: No, you just -- it's competition. Just playoff baseball too, anything can happen. You've got to just keep grinding away. To get two back in that, what was it, the third, to 6-3 there, it's like, okay, settled, back into it a little bit. And obviously Judgy hits the big homer, and we're able to tack on.
Just an awesome team win. So many guys playing an important role in some way, shape, or form makes it a lot of fun.
Q. You've got three wins in elimination games now. Can you comment to that?
AARON BOONE: We need another one tomorrow. We'll enjoy this for about 10 minutes and get ready for tomorrow.
Q. With how far in that ball was on Judge's hands, 100 miles an hour, were you at all shocked with his ability to get his hands in and pull it as far as he did?
AARON BOONE: No. I mean, it's an amazing swing. That's shades of Edgar MartÃnez right there, taking that high and tight one and keeping it fair down the line. Manny Ramirez used to do that really well too. But just a great swing on a pretty nasty pitch obviously.
Q. First, is Caballero okay?
AARON BOONE: Yeah. It's his finger that he's kind of -- really the whole second half, every now and then on a swing it kind of acts up on him.
Q. When they're going to throw a bullpen game tomorrow and not tell anyone what their plans are until the morning, how does that impact your ability to game plan? Or knowing it's a bullpen game, do you tend to drift towards your best lineup rather than worry about matchups you don't know about in advance?
AARON BOONE: No, I'll probably lean towards a little more true balance in the order knowing -- try and make them make some tough decisions throughout.
Q. Now that Judge has added a very dramatic home run to the base hits this postseason, do you think this entire experience is having a liberating impact on him and might bode well going forward?
AARON BOONE: Honestly, you guys ask me all the time about how he handles it all so well. It's like onto the next one now and be ready to go.
Obviously just I'm happy for him and that he had such an amazing game really. And you consider the defense as well, just an awesome MVP-like performance.
Regardless, I don't worry about Aaron and his state, even understanding all the outside noise.
Q. Two things if possible, Aaron. One, how many people do you think have played could turn 100 a couple of inches off the plate and keep it fair 420 feet away?
AARON BOONE: Well, I named two maybe in Edgar and Manny. Those are two that stand out to me, those right-handed hitters that took that ball kind of at them in and able to hammer it fair to the pole side. Just a great swing against Varland who's obviously been a huge weapon for them down the stretch and we saw in Toronto.
Q. The other thing is just I almost don't want to lose the complete game. He had an RBI double. He stayed in a rundown long enough to get Bellinger to third base to score on a sacrifice fly. He made a sprawling catch to save a run. He scared the heck out of them and got intentionally walked and scored a run. I wanted to know what you thought about the whole Aaron Judge experience?
AARON BOONE: Yeah, it was best player in the game type performance. It was special when obviously, needless to say, we're backs against the wall and then some in a Game 3 situation.
Q. Can you expand upon the performance of the bullpen tonight? Also how it's come together over the last month after some struggles earlier.
AARON BOONE: Yeah, they were awesome. Again, I don't think any of them hopefully not overly taxed too with the game tomorrow. But Cruz coming in and kind of settling things, Camilo continuing to really throw the ball incredibly well. You know, Tim Hill coming in and getting that final out and then going back out knowing he's got to face Springer, but we then added to the lead a little bit. So the fact he was able to get two guys out there and then that kept him in play to face Schneider.
The add-on run that we had and him getting the first two outs of that inning was really big because then you could afford to -- Schneider puts a pretty good swing on it but then flies out to left. And that allowed us to shorten things with Devin and Bednar finishing the last three innings in a shared situation.
Really good job by all the pen guys and doing it efficiently too.
Q. Just following up on that, how big was what Devin did tonight? Was him going one more inning something you talked about previously? He hasn't done it earlier?
AARON BOONE: Yeah, I don't think he's done it in a couple years, but obviously this is the time when you're going to need it every now and then. He was efficient in his inning in the seventh there. So I knew for sure I wanted him to go out and face Clement. And then if he was efficient, Wellsy and I kind of talked about giving him Santander too. And the fact that Clement gets another hit, but he's able to make a couple of really good pitches to get the strikeout of Santander, which was big. That shortened it a little bit for Bednard.
Bednard getting two quick outs there in the eighth, I think he threw five pitches to get out of it, set him up pretty well for the night.
Q. What is it about Aaron that makes him such a contagious figure for his teammates? It just almost seems like they go as he goes. What do you think that characteristic is about?
AARON BOONE: Who he is day in and day out, how he treats you, how he leads this group. He's the real deal, and as beloved a player as I've ever been around by his teammates. They all admire him, look up to him, respect him, want his approval, and that's just a credit to who Aaron is and how he goes about things.
Q. Can you talk about Jazz's home run, the go-ahead run?
AARON BOONE: Yeah, it was big. What inning was that now? Was that the eighth run -- no, that was the seventh run. I'm sorry, geez. Yeah, it was big. Again, off Varland too. That's putting a really good swing on a heater there, and that's what Jazz is capable of. He changes the game in a lot of different ways.
I thought he did a good job in the eighth there of not trying to do too much too with a play, taking the out where outs were precious there. Obviously a big swing for Jazz.
Q. How impressive was Judge's running catches in the fifth and sixth?
AARON BOONE: Yeah, great. The diving catch was great, a perfect jump on it. Right when we got back in, now here they go, it looks like they're going to lead off with base runners, and he shut it down right away. Just a pretty incredible night for The Captain.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports