NEW YORK — The Yankees take a 1-0 series lead after their 5-2 win over the Guardians in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.
Here is what Yankees manager Aaron Boone had to say after Game 1. Transcript courtesy of MLB:
Q. What made Carlos Rodón so dominant this evening?
AARON BOONE: Gosh, he was good. It just felt like he was in — we talked about how would he take the experience of the first time out, and I felt like he totally applied all of that. I thought he was just in complete command of himself and of his emotions. Stuff was excellent, had swing and miss.
I mean, the fastball was really good, but I thought mixed in some good change-ups too and even threw a couple cutters in there tonight, which we haven’t seen a lot of. But just started with the fastball and the command of it, and generally speaking, getting ahead and really having swing and miss, so he was able to put guys away over and over, while also being real pitch efficient.
Kwan put a nine, ten, whatever pitch at-bat on him right out of the chute and retires him, and he just kind of was pretty dominant from there.
Q. You mentioned he really stayed within himself, really controlled his emotions. At what point in time did you realize he was kind of a different version than you saw in the first start?
AARON BOONE: I don’t want to lose sight of that first start, how good I thought he was early. He was just definitely amped up. I think that potentially led to some fatigue or whatever, missing some spots there in that last inning.
Man, it just — I thought he held his stuff really well. You just watched him out there with intensity, but a lot of poise, and that’s what stood out.
Q. Just how key was it for you guys to get on them early and not have to deal with the elite back end arms?
AARON BOONE: Again, I thought we had really good at-bats. We pressured them early and didn’t score the first two innings where we had four base runners, five base runners. We were able to pressure Cobb a lot. He did a good job of holding us down.
Finally, Juan breaks through, and we kept the pressure on where, again, I thought we took a lot of good at-bats. Didn’t necessarily have that big hit again to make it a huge offensive night for us, but I thought a lot of heavy at-bats again, that kind of set us up and put Carlos in a good position.
Q. How’s Anthony Rizzo?
AARON BOONE: Rizzo’s good. Yeah, hand was good. I just felt like — man, I thought he was sharp, which was really good to see. Hand good. More just — but he was just kind of physically and emotionally spent there late in the game, and I kind of felt like — kind of just felt like I needed to get him out of there and wanted to make sure I’m managing this properly with him as we go through this. He really hasn’t been on the field in over two weeks, but came through good with the hand. Expect him in there tomorrow. And I thought he had some really good at-bats.
Q. The patience in the at-bats all through the postseason, really through the season, how much did the players start with that, and how much was preached by the coaches?
AARON BOONE: I think a lot of them, that’s who they are, that’s what they’re capable of, that’s in their DNA. But we beat that over — you know, we hammer it, right? And they do too. We talk about that all the time, just keep having good at-bats, keep having tough at-bats, no matter what’s going on.
You’re going to have games where it doesn’t go well or you don’t score, you go through stretches, but it’s like, man, let’s just keep — you hear pass the baton a lot or things like that, but it’s more just I want to take a heavy, tough, hard at-bat, regardless of what the result is.
I feel like by and large through these first now five playoff games, we’ve done that. Again, we haven’t totally broken through offensively, but I feel like the at-bats are where they need to be.
Q. Isn’t that more significant in the postseason where the big hits are harder to come by given the pitching?
AARON BOONE: Yeah, but it can come a lot of different ways. There’s teams out — you know, putting the ball in play helps you. Obviously putting the ball in the seats, especially when you get a couple guys out in a big spot, that can be big. But I think by and large, our strength of our group is making you have to work to go through us.
Q. With Juan Soto’s home run, as soon as he hit it, I guess Alex Cobb started walking guys after that. The crowd was very loud. How did that sort of set the tone for you guys?
AARON BOONE: I mean, it got us on the board. To that point — he’s the 11th batter there or so at that point. Again, I thought we had a lot of good at-bats. We had traffic. We probably had to that point six or seven — six base runners, but had nothing to show for it.
So for him to break through and get us on the board, and then I thought we continued to have good at-bats from there.
Q. When you look at Giancarlo Stanton right now, what do you sees?
AARON BOONE: Just some kind of presence in the middle of our lineup. Locked in, focused, and that’s of course what he’s capable of. That ball is absolutely nailed on a cold night, hitting it off the back of the bullpen out there.
I thought he just missed one his first AB, when we had two guys out there, hit the ball to left. I thought he good swing off of what I thought was a pretty good sinker from Cobb. Just missed one to right as well, had the walk and then the homer. So just stacking quality ABs. When he does that, he’s capable of obviously hitting one like he did tonight.
Q. Carlos’ tenure has been up-and-down so far. When you guys signed him two off-seasons ago, did you kind of envision these kinds of outings at the time?
AARON BOONE: Well, when you put it like that, yes. I mean, that was a dominant performance in Game 1 of the Championship Series. That was really good to see.
Again, just how in command he was, because he is intense, he is emotional at times. I thought he commanded all that so well, and that’s what he’s capable of when he’s dialed in like that.
Q. What was your argument or point of discussion with Dan on the obstruction call?
AARON BOONE: Originally, he ruled not going to second base. So I wanted to make sure that — I also wanted to make sure it didn’t hit a runner. So I was just getting some clarification. Then obviously they huddled up and ended up awarding the base.
I’ve got to still go back and look at it and see exactly, but I was at least satisfied with how they processed it and got together at least.
