Month: October 2019

October 18, 2019

James Paxton

New York, New York – postgame 5

New York 4, Houston 1

Q. You seemed to feel good about your fastball tonight. Is that a feel thing as the game went on, is that part of your plan? You seemed to throw it more than the curveball?
JAMES PAXTON: I had a good feel for the fastball tonight and I was putting it in some good spots. Had good command of the high fastball tonight so we went to that a lot.

Q. What was the conversation like with you and Aaron when he came out to talk to you in the 6th?
JAMES PAXTON: Well, I saw him walking out and he didn’t point to the dugout — or to the bullpen. So usually when he does that, he’s going to have a conversation with me. And he gave me the chance to compete and keep on going. I wanted it. And I did everything I could.

When that ball went up I was begging to stay in and it did, and just got fired up. It was awesome.

Q. The way the first inning started, did it take you a while to get into a rhythm? That was a rough inning.
JAMES PAXTON: Yeah. It was a lot of nerves, was fired up, and I think I was just overthrowing a little bit early. They put some good swings on the ball and I was missing my spots a little bit, walking a couple of guys.

Just had to battle through it.

Q. You looked pretty fired up when DJ caught that foul ball. What did you think off the bat and following the trajectory of the ball?
JAMES PAXTON: That was a huge play. Every out is huge and for him to shorten that inning by making that catch was big time.

Q. What was your mindset coming into this game tonight? Did it feel like an elimination game to you and what were your nerves like?
JAMES PAXTON: Absolutely. Nerves were huge, but that’s all part of it. My goal was to go out there and give it everything I had for my team. I wasn’t ready to go home yet so I wanted to go out and give my team everything I had and just battle away. And that’s what I did out there, and it worked out.

Q. Just following up on an earlier question about when Booney came out to the mound. You said he gave you a chance to stay in. Does that mean you had to convince him? It something you said? Was it a conversation back and forth between you?
JAMES PAXTON: There wasn’t a lot said. He just said, Are you ready? Do you have anything more left in the tank? And I said, Yeah, let’s go. I want this.

Q. Considering how last night ended and tonight began, was there anything you had to do, especially after the first inning, to collect yourself to be, This could still be a winning night for me, and how did you do that?
JAMES PAXTON: I’ve had lots of practice with that this year, I’ve given up lots of first — a lot of runs in the first inning. And I’ve had to learn how to keep on battling, especially with our offense. If I can keep that number low in the first inning, we’ve got a chance.

I was taking it one pitch at a time after that and just grinding and giving everything I had out there.

Q. On Chirinos’ pitch, were you trying to go in on him? Did you feel you got it in where you wanted to?
JAMES PAXTON: I was trying to go in. I was trying to go up and in, and I missed down. And he put a good swing on it, and I’m glad it stayed in the yard.

Q. You’ve talked a lot about a lot of different firsts this year, being with the Yankees and going through things. Was this like anything you can compare to in your career playing in this kind of game?

JAMES PAXTON: No, this is definitely the biggest game in my career. The first two postseason games definitely helped prepare me for this. This was even more so intensity-wise.

But I feel like with that experience I was able to find a way, calm myself a little bit more than the games before, and execute better.

Q. Considering the importance of this win, do you feel like it is your best performance as a Yankee player?
JAMES PAXTON: It was my best performance in a big situation, for sure. This is the postseason. I had better games this season but as far as moments and needing to do what I did, this is definitely the biggest game for me.

I didn’t do it alone. The team was fantastic today behind me playing great defense. And Gary did a great job behind the plate calling the game.

Q. When the Yankees traded for you, obviously they had high expectations and you had a great year, did you think about this kind of night when that trade was made? Do you see this stage as like a platform for you to take that next level in this game?
JAMES PAXTON: Yeah, when you think of the Yankees you think of the postseason. They pride themselves on winning, and that’s what we do here. I knew that I’d probably get an opportunity of pitching the postseason, and that’s what I wanted to do. That’s what I wanted to do when I came here, and that’s what we’re doing now.

It’s been a great experience and I want to keep on going.

Q. You said a bunch of times through the playoffs that the rotation totally understands why you’re pitching shorter outings, why he goes to the bullpen sooner, when you know that’s a possibility, is there anything where you’re trying to push and prove to the manager that you can go deeper into the game when you know it’s something you have to sell almost batter to batter?
JAMES PAXTON: That wasn’t really on my mind. For me, as long as the ball is in my hand, I’m going to go out there and give 100 percent, everything I have. When he takes it away, he takes it away. This is about the team; isn’t about me. We have a great team, a great bullpen.

I wasn’t thinking about that at all. I was just going as hard as I could the whole time I was out there.

Q. After the sixth inning when the stadium acknowledged CC, you were sitting right next to him. What’s he saying to you during the game and what kind of value can he add from the bench for the rest of however long it goes?
JAMES PAXTON: We didn’t talk tonight. We talked more between games. He talked to me after the game a little bit — or after I came out of the game obviously. He’s just got so much experience. He was telling me before this a while back, this was before the postseason started, I think, just how it’s the same baseball game. And you get used to the nerves as you get more experience. It’s the same game, just bigger stakes.

And if you can go out there and have the same approach that you have in the regular season, you’re going to be able to give yourself the best opportunity for success.

Q. Just when you walked off the mound after the first, you guys are down 1-0, you walk back for the second, you’re up 4-1, what was that mental swing like after you got the lead and then pitched with the lead?
JAMES PAXTON: Honestly, I would have done the same thing if we hadn’t scored those four runs. That being said, those four runs were huge. To jump on a pitcher as good as Verlander and get ahead like that, just really — it maybe allowed me to be a bit more aggressive in spots that we may not have been. So that was big.

But I was taking it one pitch at a time and grinding the whole time. I would have done that no matter what.

Q. You’ve mentioned throughout the postseason feeling the adrenaline out there. How are you better controlling that and are you finding it easier to do so as you go?
JAMES PAXTON: I think it’s just happening naturally with experience. Feeling that for the first time in the DS, I couldn’t feel my body the entire time. It was just numb. Just the experience of going out there is getting more and more comfortable each time out. And I just feel like I have more feel with my body.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

October 18, 2019

AJ Hinch

New York, New York – postgame 5

New York 4, Houston 1

Q. Do you know yet who you’ll start in Game 6 or how you’ll handle the pitching situation?
AJ HINCH: No, we’ll talk about it on the plane ride home.

Q. Can you tell us what happened with Verlander there in the first inning and how he was able to get back on track?
AJ HINCH: Yeah, he was incredible after the first. They felt really good about going into the bottom of the first. We had put up a run and then we were just barely a few feet away from putting up a second run with Bregman’s bullet to left field. And then we go into the bottom of the first, LeMahieu took a couple big swings, hits the homer and woke up the building. And Judge hit a pitch he hasn’t pulled hardly at all this season for the bullet base hit. And then Torres did what Torres has been doing this series, which is pretty good at-bat, snuck a ball inside the line. And then Hicks had a really good at-bat in a mistake slider for a homer off the foul pole 315 feet away.

I thought he recovered great and did his best to continue to keep us in the game, because that was a great recovery after an inning that looked like it was spiraling away from him. The two balls that they hit, unfortunately, went out of the ballpark.

Q. How much are you considering replacing Yordan Alvarez in the lineup tomorrow?
AJ HINCH: He’ll be there. He’ll DH and bat 7th.

Q. Just for a little more detail, when you decide what you’re going to do tomorrow, is it basically a bullpen game?
AJ HINCH: It will be a bullpen game.

Q. And you’ll save Cole if there’s a Game 7?
AJ HINCH: I said it would be a bullpen game tomorrow, and I’m unlikely to use Cole, correct.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Springer scores on Paxton’s wild pitch in 1st. 1-0 Astros

LeMahieu leadoff HR in 1st. 1-1.

Hicks three-run HR in 1st. 4-1 Yankees.

Aaron Boone

New York, New York – pregame 5

Q. What told you Giancarlo Stanton was ready to get back in there and ultimately why him over Encarnacion?
AARON BOONE: He was one of them that told me. Just felt good about his progress yesterday. I felt like it was the first day where he made some pretty good progress. Clearly not a hundred percent running, don’t feel like hitting will be an issue for him. And just have to kind of govern himself out on the bases.

But he’s been kind of wanting in there the last few days and held off, held off. And then he actually did come by my office last night and we both kind of said, Let’s go.

And so excited to have him back in there.

Q. Could you talk about what you told the team today about the discipline with the strike zone and how important that will be against Verlander tonight? What did you tell the team about that, how important is that?
AARON BOONE: I haven’t told them anything today about that. That’s always — I think those of you that are around us know that it’s something that we talk ad nauseam about, about controlling the strike zone. And it’s something that those guys are very good at and will be important for us moving forward today and on in this series.

If we’re going to move on we’ve got to be able to do that at a very high level, especially against a pitching staff like the Astros.

Q. Defensive infield that you’re putting out there in this series is obviously really good and really talented. Have you had a chance to maybe sleep on it, do you have any explanation or thoughts of why they had a rough night last night? Or maybe there is no answer.
AARON BOONE: No, I have a ton of confidence in that group, in the defense certainly we’re running out there again tonight. It’s been one of the strengths certainly in the postseason for us and we had a bad night last night, and those things unfortunately happen sometimes. But have all the confidence moving forward in those guys that they’re going to continue to play a high level.

Q. Are you worried the way that game kind of spiraled, some guys just got sloppier than usual and that had to do with the situation?
AARON BOONE: I don’t know. When you make mistakes, I mean, that’s how it looks. But as far as moving forward, confident that these guys will flush it and go out and play like they’re capable of tonight.

Q. After the game last night you were pretty honest about how disappointed you were in your team. Do you remember being more upset or surprised at your team’s performance since you took over this job?
AARON BOONE: I don’t know. It’s obviously a lot on the line and when we don’t play our best I think everyone gets frustrated at that because we expect a lot of ourselves. I know our guys expect a lot out of themselves.

But one thing I know about them when we have, throughout the year, done things at a very high level or had a clunker or not played well, I feel like this team, as much as any that I’ve been around, do a very good job of letting yesterday roll off and being hyper focused on the day, and confident that will be the case today.

Q. Could you walk us through the conversation on the mound with CC and Stevie last night and anything you may have talked with him about today?
AARON BOONE: Well, we sensed for a couple of pitches that maybe he had hurt himself. So I actually called Stevie over. We saw him throw one more pitch and then we kind of ran out there.

CC just obviously talked about his shoulder and then said, But let me throw one and see how it is. And he threw one and right away you knew that was it. And he and Stevie walked off.

So there wasn’t a lot of conversation other than CC is not very dramatic at all about it. It was just threw it and knew that was it. Yeah, that was it.

Q. (No microphone.)
AARON BOONE: As far as what?

Q. (No microphone.)
AARON BOONE: Yeah, I think he knows my affection for him, he knows his affection for his teammates and how we all feel about him.

And I think there was — he and I even kind of laughed about it a little bit, like kind of in a weird way, kind of a perfect way to go out. He’s been the ultimate teammate, competitor, gamer, left everything on the field, left everything he had on the mound.

I talk about it to our guys every now and then about, Give us everything you’ve got. And CC embodied that, and he left it all out there last night.

Q. Just following up on that, from your perspective as a manager, I think it’s always probably difficult to tell people that they’re coming off a roster or they’re being sent down. How emotionally taxing was that for you to have to talk to CC and basically realizing that this is the end of his career?
AARON BOONE: Emotional but a lot of happiness and joy in it, too. I talked to him in the food room last night and hugged him and had a lot of really good comments back and forth with him. He knows what he means to me and to us. So I think it was some sadness but also very happy time. CC will be fine.

Q. As a pitcher CC is obviously used to being around the guys on days he’s not contributing on the field in some ways. What role does he have to play for you guys in these next three games if you’re going to advance?
AARON BOONE: He’ll be the same. He’ll be this presence on the bench, presence in the clubhouse.

One of the things about having him in the bullpen is I’ve missed having him on the bench, looking over there and hearing him or hearing his laugh, hearing his chatter. I’ll pass by him every now and then in a game, in the middle of a game, kind of for some levity for myself and just say something I noticed happened in the game or in the stadium.

So in that way it will be nice to have him back on the bench tonight and look over and be able to see him.

Q. You’ve been around the game in some form or fashion since you were a boy. I wonder, have you ever come across anyone who is a starting pitcher who was looked at as a leader in his clubhouse like him, young, old, hitter, pitcher, all backgrounds, et cetera?
AARON BOONE: I don’t know at the level that CC is, when we’re talking about a Hall of Famer. We’ve been going through this all year and all the great things being said about CC. I think everyone understands how authentic it is and genuine. He’s the best. I mean, he’s how you would draw it up from a teammate standpoint, from a competitor standpoint.

One of the greatest things CC has, and I think is one of the greatest things on a human being, is he’s kind of dripping with humility. That’s real. That’s who he is. A lot of people can come across that way; CC is that. And it’s why I think he’s beloved in there but across the sport and really with anyone he comes in contact with.

But as far as a ballplayer, a competitor, and a teammate, it’s hard to draw it up any better than CC Sabathia.

Q. From a team and a series perspective, when you were down 3-1 and it’s going to take a big comeback, do you ever draw off of your own experiences as a player in the postseason or your father’s or anything you’ve seen in the game to know it is possible at a time like that?
AARON BOONE: Probably.

Q. Have you?
AARON BOONE: In fact, Sweeney just reminded me the Brewers were playing my dad’s team in ’82. They were down 2-0. They came back and won 3-2. The Angels, my dad’s team, were up 3-1 on the Red Sox in ’86, and the Red Sox came back. I remember that well, I remember crying on my couch watching Game 7 in our house. I think the Cubs came back from 3-1 against the Indians.

Not just our sport but all kinds of sports are littered with stories of comebacks. So we know we’re certainly capable of that. We have a tough task tonight against a great team and a great pitcher, and we’ll look forward to going out and hopefully grabbing one and getting on a plane.

Q. Is Severino an option out of the bullpen tonight?
AARON BOONE: We’ll see. We’ll see. Had some very little conversation on that. And I haven’t talked to Seve yet. I know the pitchers are out there throwing.

Probably not but we’ve got a few hours before the game to kind of talk through things. But I don’t anticipate him.

Q. In Stanton’s absence while he was hurt, it seems like in a number of these games you guys were one pitch or one hit away from breaking things open. What kind of advantage is that now with Encarnacion slumping as he was, to be able to insert him and hopefully maybe get a spark out of it?
AARON BOONE: That’s a lot of times what the postseason is, the playoffs is. You’ve got to take advantage of opportunities. The last few days we haven’t been able to do that, and it’s been the difference in us winning, losing games.

Hopefully we create more opportunities. That’s ultimately the goal is to create those opportunities. Now we’ve got to break through. And that’s hard to do especially when you’re facing good pitching and getting a hit is a failing proposition.

But the more opportunities we can create, hopefully we can break through with a couple and get on that plane.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

October 18, 2019

AJ Hinch

New York, New York – pregame 5

Q. All year you give guys rest on and off to prepare for October. When you’re putting the lineup together you have a lot of things to consider; guys are in there every day, you like to group guys, you have pitchers, you have the next day’s game. Is it easier or harder to put the lineup together when you’re in the playoffs?
AJ HINCH: I don’t know if it’s easier or harder. It’s a little bit different. You see for us, we have the everyday players, and there’s a couple of situations like today when I want to play Jake in the outfield, that matches up well with Verlander and with Paxton. And a little bit of read what you see and what you know and how do you want to configure Alvarez or Correa today. When I moved Yuli and switched a few things up.

You probably obsess over it a little bit more in the postseason just because you think that one decision at 2:00 is going to impact the one matchup in the fourth or fifth inning if they go to their bullpen.

But generally rest is not something that’s considered this time of year. We’ve kind of asked our guys to monitor what their physical workload is. Adrenaline usually takes up for any sort of fatigue and stuff like that.

I’ve yet in my playoff experience as a manager go to a guy in the bullpen and say, Hey, what can you give me today and him say nothing. They all want to pitch.

I love this time of year for a lot of reasons, because we can — as managers we can really do whatever we want and maneuver your players around, they’re all on board because it’s all about winning.

Q. Award season is coming up and Yordan is going to get a lot of consideration for Rookie of the Year, if not win it. What has separated him in your mind as a rookie and what are some of the qualities he exemplifies as a player?
AJ HINCH: He’s had an incredible year, and I think his ability to come up to a really good team and jump right into the middle of the order for the majority of the season, contribute the way that he did, the power, the run production, being in the middle of this lineup from the get-go as a rookie is exceptional.

His balance that he brings. His reaction to success. His reactions to failure. How he’s blended in on a pretty polished veteran-driven team has been nothing short of amazing.

And this was probably the perfect team for him. We have a great culture. We have some countrymen for him to relate to. We have all the information imaginable to put him in a position to be successful.

But I think it’s about his preparation and his ability to absorb all of that on the biggest stage in the highest league in the world. If he gets the award, as he should, then he deserves it.

Q. Sometimes we can see very talented teams get a little complacent. Obviously the Astros are an incredibly talented team. How have you been able to keep your foot on the gas over the last three years?
AJ HINCH: You know, we really stay grounded with what our goal is. It’s easier said than done sometimes but you really just have to credit the players and our culture and what we’re all about, which is just winning today’s game.

We haven’t gotten too ahead of ourselves. We haven’t assumed anything over the last few years. We’ve won a hundred games three years in a row. We’ve won our division. We’ve experienced a lot together as a group. And I think we appreciate the group we have any given year. Every team is different.

Our standards are at the right level. Our mindset’s at the right level, and ultimately the production on the field has been at the right level.

Q. When you interviewed here with the Astros, what convinced you about their plan and their direction that made you think it would work?
AJ HINCH: That takes me back a few years but my relationship with Jeff preceded that interview. I’d been a farm director with him so I had history in the game with him. I’d also interviewed a couple years prior to getting the job here in Houston.

So I had a pretty good understanding. I think my job at the time was involved in pro scouting and pro personnel. And if you just looked at the Astros, I saw Altuve play in Double-A in Corpus. I knew Correa from his amateur days. You knew George Springer. There were some famous prospects that were on the rise. So the ingredients were really attractive.

The plan that was in place that both Jim and Jeff shared with me openly on the days that I interviewed was very thorough but also it’s a buy-in on how we were going to not only become successful but how we were going to stay successful, and where they saw me as a key ingredient in that.

When a team that has a plan in place and is starting to execute that plan and then they tell you what a big part they thought that you needed to be, it’s an easy sell. I wanted to get back in the dugout. I wanted to work with players. I wanted to be a part of an organization that was trending in the right direction and was going to be committed to winning. And it’s been a great marriage.

Q. You had an interesting sequence of decisions during the fifth inning yesterday. You’ve got James throwing the bullpen, you’ve got Pressly on the mound. If you want to go with the right-handed matchup you could. You stick with Pressly and he gets through that. And obviously you can see his reaction at the end of it. Based on your experience in the postseason, how can one moment bolt a guy back on track?
AJ HINCH: That’s the hope with him. He’s one of the best relievers in baseball when he’s right. And sometimes you forget that if you have a few outings or you have an injury or you have a setback of some sort, and all of a sudden you forget that he’s the same dominant reliever that made the All-Star Team, which is next to impossible as a reliever. He’s the same wipeout reliever that we traded for. And had an incredibly low hit rate — no, walk rate, high punch-out rate. The damage is so light against him.

So the trust in him is not hard to have. This guy is elite across the board. When you’re making decisions on how to keep encouraging him or how to keep giving him opportunities in the face of the highest-leverage moment of the game, you have to combine what you see with what you know. I understand where his spin is. I understand what his strengths are, and I trust the person and how he’s going to respond to the opportunity.

And I love how emotional — this is not an emotional guy. He’s not someone who shows that on a routine basis. And so I’m proud of how he’s been able to get through the surgery. Very limited workload to get into the playoffs. Have a couple of bumps in the road in the playoffs and yet step on the big stage and get some big punch-outs.

Truthfully, my plan was for him to get Hicks out first. Hicks was the better matchup for him out of any of those three, and I wanted to give him a chance to come in and spin the breaking ball. Hicks puts up a good at-bat. And even though he walked him, I’ve got to watch the game to see how that happened, not just that he walked him. Or not just that he just misfired on a back door breaking ball to walk him. He was throwing pretty good stuff up there, which led him to get the opportunities moving forward against Torres, who has tormented our team and ultimately Encarnacion.

But the best part of that inning was the fact that he changed his game plan to Encarnacion and stayed hard, and we powered through. We had a finish fastball that we don’t normally see out of the Astros all the time. And that comes with the game calling with Chirinos and Press being able to execute flawlessly at the highest part of the game.

Q. Stanton’s presence certainly changes the dynamic in that New York lineup. Will that change the way you then navigate through the Yankee lineup?
AJ HINCH: We’ll have to see how he’s moving, how he’s swinging. I don’t think they put him in the cleanup spot if they think he can swing. I don’t anticipate he’s going to be able to move all that well necessarily on the running on the bases and stuff like that. Thanks to all you guys who put the video out there of his early work yesterday; I got a chance to see it. I think he’s a threat from the minute he walks into the batter’s box, whether he’s got fully healthy legs or not.

So we will go case-by-case. I don’t think you can focus too much on Stanton because LeMahieu and Judge and Torres are key guys to get out in front of him. I know he hit the homer the other day with the one leg or whatever hurting.

So I think we’ll game plan around it. We understand what options they have. But they put him in the middle of the order because he can change the game with one swing. So we’ll have to make sure we make our pitches to him.

Q. Understanding that it’s the players who come through, do you take any satisfaction from the chess game of it and the moves that you and your staff make when they do pan out and beat yourself up when they don’t?
AJ HINCH: Well, of course. I will always credit the players and always take the blame. It’s my job. But I absolutely relish in the chess match that goes on as a manager. You try to put your players in the best position to be successful.

There is another element to managing when you look across the way and he’s managing his team and you have to react and respond and see the moves that he has or moves he makes or doesn’t make. And he’s doing the same with me.

That’s the manager’s job is to put your guys in a position to be successful. When they do, I take great pride for the players. And if I ever put them in a tough spot and they don’t come through, I certainly stay up at night thinking about what I could have done differently to help them.

Our job is to bring the most and best out of the players. This is a game about players. And my impact or my decision making that puts them in that position is something I take very seriously.

Q. Considering it is about trying to win tonight and ending the series, what are your thoughts on who would start Game 6 and would Cole be available?
AJ HINCH: You know, Game 6 is tomorrow. And I’ve said this for the first four games and leading into Game 5, that we have a single mindset of a single game. That’s all we’re really worried about.

I have a plan that we’ll discuss tomorrow if we have a game tomorrow. And we have everybody available in the bullpen tonight including guys that have started before for us, James or Peacock or Urquidy. Those are all certainly options.

But if I’m going to preach the first four games to talk about today’s game, then I should honor my own request for the players, and just worry about trying to win tonight with JV on the mound.

Q. What do you remember about catching CC in Spring Training?
AJ HINCH: Well, CC is such a big man and big personality of a big man. And his stuff was really good. I caught him at a really young age when he was in the mid to upper 90s. Stuff you didn’t see very much out of a starting pitcher.

He was very polished as a young player, emotionally and in the clubhouse, and very engaging personality. But the stuff was real. I had faced him as a hitter before I caught him. And it was amazing to have somebody that big, that physical, that athletic back in the day be able to do so much on the mound — and a lot was done to him as a young player, 19, 20 years old when he first got into the big leagues.

He was fun to catch. Big target. He’s a big man out there. And the stuff was so elite across the board that you had a lot of weapons to go to. And it’s been fun. I love when these guys stay in the game this long and adapt and evolve and change to stay in the game and still be effective. And I saw his press conference earlier, if he wanted to stay as a left-handed reliever, teams would line up to let him keep pitching.

Q. You know the ethos of the catcher with the position. Chirinos got whacked twice good yesterday. Any conversation with him and just checking with you, how are you doing today?
AJ HINCH: Yeah, it’s a thankless job back there when you get beat up. I said to him on the field, he’s been taking these body blows all year, he might as well take them for another couple of weeks. That’s the key is to come back tomorrow night.

He was concerned, just because nobody likes to get hit, our whole dugout was concerned, but the guy who wanted to make sure he was ready the most is Justin Verlander. He’s caught every pitch this season that JV has thrown so he’ll be in there and be ready.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports