AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS BLUE JAYS

October 7, 2025

John Schneider

Yankee Stadium

Toronto Blue Jays

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Yankees - 9, Blue Jays - 6

Q. When you looked to the top three 6-1, throughout the comeback there from the Yankees, is there any moment that sticks out to you that's particularly frustrating or a tipping point through all of that?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, I thought we did a good job against Carlos, kind of just didn't play our game really. When you look at things as a whole, just defensively, getting extra outs, things like that, and they can do that in a hurry.

It's not one thing. It's a couple things. Their bullpen did a really good job, and we just gave them extra outs.

Q. Given how much your bullpen had to do today, do you have pitching plans for tomorrow?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah. I'll probably let you know tomorrow. Again, like I said before the game, you're trying to take chances to win today, and it didn't work out. Everyone is available tomorrow. Everyone is available, just not exactly sure who's going to start yet. Got to talk through that with Pete and the guys. I think everyone's available tomorrow.

Q. Defense has been a selling point or a strong point for you guys all season long. Does that make it more frustrating what happened tonight to have the lead and let it slip away like that?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, but it happens. It's baseball. Again, I said it a million times. These guys will be ready to play tomorrow. It happens. It gets magnified this time of year, sure, all that kind of stuff, but you've got to take care of the ball.

Is it frustrating? Yeah, it's frustrating today, but you've got to come to work tomorrow, get prepared, and physical errors happen. It's part of the game. But you've got to move on and get ready for tomorrow.

Q. That being said, when the momentum started to change towards the Yankees, you were obviously trying different things to try and stop it there. Was there a sense for you that, when it was starting rolling and maybe getting a bit uncontrollable on their end?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Say that again?

Q. Was there a point when you sensed it was going to be really hard to stop the momentum they had built?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: It's tough as a whole to play here. I think we did a really good job of coming out and taking the lead. You're talking about giving a really good team extra outs, and you're talking about a really good player turning around a hundred, like, three balls in. You've got to give credit for that, for one.

But I think we just focus on taking care of the ball. Again, it can turn on you in a hurry. You've just got to kind of stop any kind of momentum. Walks and errors will kill you against this team. So I think that was kind of the tipping point a little bit.

Q. Just with the success the Yankee hitters have had against the bullpen at the back of Game 2 there and then today, is there any common things you're seeing in their approach against the bullpen or the success they're having there?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: It's a good lineup, you know what I mean? You've got to execute. Again, I think Judge's swing aside, I don't think we located secondary stuff the best. It's just one of those days. I don't think that they're doing anything different than they've done all year. It's a really talented lineup.

You've got to really execute, and you've got to really sequence it the right way.

Q. You mentioned a great player turning around a hundred. You're a couple innings into this game. Are you thinking are we going to be able to get out of here without Judge heavily impacting the series, and what do you think now that he has?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, man, you look at it like that. He's had a good postseason. He's had a pretty good career. I think him and Vlad are kind of taking their game to a different level, you know what I mean? You can kind of look at those two guys as really rising to the occasion.

He's someone you're always aware of. We're always aware where he is, and I think they've done a good job of putting good players in front and behind him in the lineup too. So there's times where you just don't want him to swing. There's times where you say, okay, let's get after him. I'll take 100, 101 with some nasty breaking stuff executed any day of the week, and it just didn't work out today.

Hopefully he gets a bad night's sleep and has some bad food tonight or something like that. Give him credit, man, that was a ridiculous swing.

Q. I was going to say can you fault the pitch selection on that homer on virtually any other batter would have been tied up?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: I don't know, man. He puts the fastball by him, and you can go one of two ways. You can try to go up and in like he did. You can try to bury a breaking ball. Again, give him credit. You got to make pitches, sometimes you have to make really good pitches. It's not like you're waiting for that to happen, but you understand the talent he does possess.

Q. Even though you wouldn't, did you run through the parameters of, okay, walk him here, nah?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: I think about that a lot. Every situation is different -- score, who's on the mound, time of the game, all that kind of stuff. I trust my guys to make pitches. There's ways to get him out. Again, he's one of the best players, if not the best player in Major League Baseball, but I trust my guys to execute.

If there's a time when we cannot pitch to him, sure. But just give him credit for that swing.

Q. Just wondering what you made of Shane today, and then what did you kind of see in that third inning when you made the decision to take him out?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: It's a tough decision obviously. I thought he was throwing the ball fairly well. I thought his secondary stuff was really good in the second inning. Then just looked like he was having a little bit of trouble missing bats. Then you kind of get into pitches that inning and things like that.

Again, you're trying to just do what you can, what you think is best to win the game right now. I get how it looks with the bullpen game tomorrow and all that kind of stuff. Man, these guys are going to be ready to go.

I thought Shane was -- we didn't help him -- first inning obviously. I thought Shane handled himself really well. It sucks for him that it wasn't a longer outing. I know he was looking forward to this game, and we were looking forward to him pitching. We kind of just didn't play in sync today for him.

Q. You've talked a lot this season about your team's ability to turn the page. Can you describe a little bit resetting after this one given that you had a spot in the ALCS in your hands and now there's a Game 4?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, we had a spot in the ALCS in our hands when the series started, you know what I mean? I know it's 6-1 in the third inning, but we still have a spot like that tomorrow.

These guys will be ready to go. It's really comforting for me to see them do that all year. I know they're going to do it again tomorrow, and you have to kind of take out the outside noise that comes with playing here and all that kind of stuff.

I got all the confidence in the world in these guys showing up tomorrow ready to go and just doing their normal day and competing their asses off.