Q. We touched on this a little bit yesterday. Game 3 elimination games, what is that like? What is the feeling for you as a player?
XANDER BOGAERTS: I mean, it's either you win to continue or you go home. It's exciting. It's fun. It's nerve-racking. It's probably not the situation you'd want to be in, but it's better than already being at home.
Give it one last go, give it everything you've got, and just go out there wanting it more than the other team.
Q. Your left foot, how is that holding up? You did come back pretty quickly and you've been performing on it.
XANDER BOGAERTS: Yeah, I mean, it's not like 100 percent. I wish it was. Then me getting some infield hits, it definitely ain't helping it either.
Listen, just doing anything you can and trying to stay active. As I said, at this point in the season, I don't know if there's anyone that's 100 percent. Just got to give it everything you have. Today is a special, special important day.
Q. What do you make of what your bullpen is doing, especially Mason Miller, watching the swings and where he's placing those pitches?
XANDER BOGAERTS: Yeah, the 104 one dotted away. Keller struck me out with a pitch kind of similar to that at 97, so 104 is even harder.
Yeah, those guys throughout the whole year, they've been doing a great job. It would be nice if we could add some runs early, add a lot of runs. But playoff baseball doesn't usually get a lot of runs. It's very tight games, low-scoring games, close matches.
If there's a spot where we can be able to put up some nice numbers up there on the board for the pitching, it would be nice.
Q. I know Manny had given Yu Darvish some credit when he was going through a home run slump before he hit a home run. Can you speak to what Darvish's presence has meant inside that clubhouse even when he wasn't available to pitch?
XANDER BOGAERTS: I just think that experience is a huge part, and he's always so calm in all these situations. There were points yesterday in the game, even I was at shortstop, and the crowd was going crazy.
It pretty much didn't faze me because I think I've been in those situations before, and that's one of the reasons when you're like, you know what, experience definitely is a big help in these type of situations.
So him just having playoff experience, having so many starts under his belt in Japan and in the major leagues, that's something at his advantage for sure.
Q. What strikes you about Manny's demeanor in particular when you guys have your backs against the wall?
XANDER BOGAERTS: Yeah, at home he was clutch. He's been hitting the ball hard. Maybe not getting the results we all want, but listen, the playoffs is not about you. It's about all of us, and you've just got to try to score one more run than the other. Every big swing is important. Every run is important.
He gave us a nice cushion and nice breathing room to go up by three runs and give the bullpen some room for error, and they were lights out.
Q. You guys obviously are used to velocity in the majors leagues these days with all of these guys throwing hard, but is there a velocity point where you just don't even see the ball? What Mason is doing, can you even as a hitter register that or is that ball just basically in the glove before you even know it's gone?
XANDER BOGAERTS: I mean, I can tell you hitting in the shadows is pretty hard. I remember that strike out I got from Keller the other night. That felt like 104. It's hard, and then in the shadows, maybe I was kind of guessing a little bit up there and just swinging at something that I see, but it's really hard to hit in the shadows.
But someone throwing 104, I feel like it's probably equivalent to something like that. Throw your bat, kind of guess where it's going to go or something, and he paints it on the dot, it's close to unhittable.
Q. At that level, are you either guessing where it's going or are you taking it hoping it's a ball at that point?
XANDER BOGAERTS: I mean, first you've got to try to see it, but I don't know how much time you've got to see it at 104. Yeah, try to look for it in one area, but you've got to react so quick. I don't even know how you do it. Maybe it is just skill set or us doing it so much every day and throughout the years, but that ball that he threw, I don't know who would have even found it. Maybe Luis. I don't know. I'd probably say maybe him.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports