Aaron Boone has felt like his New York Yankees have been playing with their backs to the wall for the majority of the last two months, but the stakes have been significantly higher in the last week.
They became the first team to overturn a 1-0 series deficit in the best-of-three American League Wild Card to beat the Boston Red Sox. Now, they’ll try to flip the script on the Toronto Blue Jays, who bashed their way to a 2-0 lead up north in the best-of-five ALDS.
One more loss to the Jays means the Yankees’ season ends earlier than anticipated, and the Bonbers will look to stave off said elimination in the Bronx for Game 3 on Tuesday night and potentially Game 4 on Wednesday.
“We approach it like we have all season, but even more specifically, the last 6-8 weeks, where we feel like we’ve been playing with a lot on the line every single day,” Boone said on Monday from Yankee Stadium. “We’ll go into our hitters’ meetings, and it’s about winning today. Period. Not getting ahead of that. And even keeping it smaller than that. It’s about going up and trying to win every pitch. Keep it small, keep it simple. Know that if you go out and win a ballgame tomorrow, that’s as far as you go. That’s how we’ll look at it.”
Veteran southpaw Carlos Rodon gets the ball on Tuesday night to try to extend the Yankees’ season. While he is coming off his best regular season in pinstripes, postseason success has been elusive. After posting a 5.60 ERA last postseason, Rodon coughed up a pair of slim leads in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against Boston in a no-decision that the Yankees eventually went on to win.
Boone implored that he has “a ton of confidence” in the 32-year-old.
“He’s obviously been one of our horses this year,” the skipper said. “He’s had a great year, and any time we give him the ball, we feel like we have an excellent chance to win… He’ll be ready to roll and hopefully will get us off to a good start.”
He’ll be tasked with trying to shut down a relentless Blue Jays lineup that posted 23 runs across the first two games of the ALDS. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has accounted for six of those runs alone behind a pair of home runs, including a back-breaking grand slam on Sunday evening.
“He’s a guy that hits the ball incredibly hard, has a good idea of the strike zone,” Boone said of the Blue Jays’ superstar. “Has power when he gets in that mode, too, a little bit. He’s hit a couple balls out of the ballpark, but he’s also shown his bat-to-ball skills, where he can spray it around the yard, too. He’s certainly hurt us so far, and hopefully we can contain that a little bit tomorrow.”
