AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS RAYS

October 3, 2026

Aaron Boone

Tropicana Field

New York Yankees

Postgame 1 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Aaron.

Q. Aaron, Rasmussen shut down this offense all night long. Austin Wells finally gets the hit in the eighth inning. What is he thinking with two outs?

AARON BOONE: Just obviously not a good decision there. Not sure if he saw something on his way between first and second that, you know, caused him to go there. But, obviously, you know, a mistake there.

But biggest issue is just Rasmussen shutting us down. Obviously, a handful of guys hit some balls on the screws, Austin being one of them a couple times there. But we just didn't generate enough, obviously.

Q. Did you think that he was that good, or did you think something could have been tweaked when it comes to the approach tonight?

AARON BOONE: I thought he was really sharp. I thought his change-up was good for him and in play. Obviously, with our left-handed hitters, it looked like he had the cutter going when he needed to. Then the good four-seamer where he mixed in some sinkers off of it. His command is just really good and kind of what sets him apart.

He's got a great arsenal. The ability to pitch on both sides of the plate and up and down obviously makes him challenging and one we've had a hard time solving.

Q. You guys have Cam going in Game 2. How important is Game 2 and what's the level of confidence with him on the mound?

AARON BOONE: I mean, it's the playoffs. Here we go. Like every day's important. Every win is an exhale and exciting and, you know, the losses are gut punches. But you've got to just keep moving and know that you're going to have some tough days, too.

We're obviously always thrilled when we hand the ball to Cam and hopefully we can go out and put some points on the board, though, to support him and come out of here with a split and head back home.

Q. Everybody makes mistakes, of course, in baseball. Austin is usually a very intelligent player. Is that because of Austin -- is that kind of stunning that he's the one that did that when you look at how intelligent of a guy he is?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. I mean, there's mistakes every now and then and aggression. Obviously, that was one. He's usually a little more risk averse on the bases, but obviously, it's a mistake and it does happen.

Q. Did you think Lombard's fly ball to right had a shot to go out there?

AARON BOONE: I knew he got it good. I didn't think it was that off the bat. When I saw Mesa turn and run, but then it felt like he had a bead on it at the end. So I thought he hit it well enough and I was talking to it, like get going a little bit.

George hit a couple balls on the screws. We had some guys that squared up some balls, but when Rasmussen's limiting the free pass, do we walk once or twice, maybe? Twice? Yeah, which usually he doesn't -- he's not giving you anything free. And the handful of balls that we did hit on the screws just were kind of at 'em.

Q. Seemed like maybe Cole left the one change-up up a little bit. Overall, is that about as good as you could have hoped and maybe as good as he's been in a few weeks?

AARON BOONE: Look, Gerrit's had a really good year. He's been good all year for us. So I thought he threw the ball well. I thought they took some tough at-bats against him. I thought that -- I thought he threw, especially being a really tight game, nothing-nothing, and then 1-nothing, it felt like it was leveraged the whole game.

And he executed some really good pitches against some of their best hitters in the right spots. So I thought he threw the ball really well. I mean, when Gerrit goes to the mound, the best -- you know, he's capable of anything.

I thought he got us off to a good start tonight. They made him work. And then our bullpen picked it up from there. So I thought we did a really good job, obviously, on the mound tonight of doing what we needed to do to give ourselves a chance to win.

Q. Aaron, was Rasmussen doing similar to what he did against you in New York the other night, or was he doing some things differently?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. It's hard to say. I feel like he's got a lot of different ways to beat you. Starts with great command. And when he has a presence on both sides of the plate and up and down, and you have to respect the four-seam on him, he was able to freeze us a lot on different sides of the plate, as well.

His mix was really strong. I thought he kind of used everything against us, and he cut us up again.

Q. You mentioned he cut you up again, and you said earlier, you've had trouble solving him. In a first-to-three-win series, the fact that he's going to start twice, what do you think of big picture, trying to win that kind of series?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, I think we're due the next time. We've done it before, and I know our guys are very confident. So the reality is, you know, you want to go deep in the playoffs, you've got to beat probably a great pitcher at some point. So we've got to find a way. Hopefully, we're in a position to get another crack at him and execute a little better.

Q. What made that the right spot to pinch-hit Giancarlo in the ninth?

AARON BOONE: Just Baker's obviously had a great year. Really tough, really reverse guy. So not that I was going to hit for a lot of my lefties there, but felt the threat of Giancarlo -- I thought he had a really good at-bat. I thought he was on all four pitches. I thought he was seeing the change-up well. I thought got a good swing off right out of the bat.

I liked what I saw, like he was -- he took the right at-bat. He just didn't clip it. So, yeah, I mean, I'm going to take my shot with a hitter there and got Cabby to run for him and we'll take our shot right there.

THE MODERATOR: Aaron, thanks so much. Appreciate it.