TORONTO — Aaron Boone is keeping receipts.
The Yankees manager was in the midst of talking about his club’s improved infield defense and how well it has played over the last couple of months on Friday when he added some spice.
“Contrary to some thoughts up here, we’re a really good team,” Boone said at Rogers Centre ahead of an ALDS showdown with the Blue Jays.
But it was not just Blue Jays fans that Boone was referring to. He clearly had someone or something on his mind.
“I know Buck [Martinez] had some thoughts,” Boone said, referring to the Blue Jays television analyst and longtime big league catcher, who dared to say that the Yankees were “not a good team” in early September.
“I don’t care what their record is,” Martinez said during a broadcast. “They have a lot of wild pitches, they make a lot of mistakes in the field, they don’t run the bases very well. If they don’t hit home runs, they don’t have a chance to win.”
A few weeks later, Boone got his retort.
“He’s wrong,” Boone said. “But it doesn’t matter. We’ve got to go play, and we’ve got to go perform, as everyone does this time of year.”
Cody Bellinger took batting practice during the workout Friday, showing no ill effects of the bruised left heel that had him hobbling near the end of Thursday’s clincher against the Red Sox.
The outfielder “re-aggravated” the injury while racing around from second base to score during the four-run fourth inning, but it does not seem to be something that puts him in danger of not being in the lineup for Game 1 of the ALDS on Saturday.
“Just kind of jammed his heel a little bit when he was rounding third,” Boone said. “He should be all right. He should be good to go.”
More than any other manager in the big leagues, John Schneider has been aggressive in taking the bat out of Aaron Judge’s hands.
And it does not sound like the Blue Jays manager plans on altering that strategy all too much now that it is the postseason.
“I know I’ve gotten plenty of boos in New York and even some boos here if you walk him,” Schneider said. “I get it as a fan of the game.
“I think you look at their lineup as a whole, you look at certain spots where he’s coming up. You’re definitely aware of where he is at all times and respect the hell out of the season that he had. I don’t think anything really changes with the way we’ll go about him or anyone else.”
During this regular season, the Blue Jays walked Judge 15 times — seven of them intentionally — across 56 plate appearances. When Judge did get to swing away, he hit .325 with a 1.118 OPS and three home runs.
Since Schneider has been at the helm, the Blue Jays have walked the Yankees slugger 46 times in 45 games, 17 of them intentionally.
“I think you just trust guys in certain spots, and I think if there’s a way to limit the times he does swing and potentially impact the ball, that’s a benefit for us,” Schneider said. “But there’s no set of rules to say when and when not to.”
