Brett Gardner later said he was joking, but last Thursday, prior to the Yankees' series finale against the Rays, Gardy had this to say about the weekend series with the Red Sox and the return of Alex Cora:
"Yeah, I mean, having him back in the dugout obviously makes me want to beat them more. Listen, we don't like those guys, they don't like us. But we haven't seen much of them this year, so it will be interesting to have them come into town and obviously we look forward to those games, whether they are here in the Bronx or up at Fenway. There's a lot of energy and having fans back in the stands this year will be fun. It will be a good matchup and and we look forward to hopefully playing well against them."
Gardner of course said he was 'halfway joking,' adding that "obviously (Cora) had a lot of success over in Houston and led the Red Sox to the World Series a couple years ago. And they're playing well again this year. So, like I said, it will be a good battle and it will be fun."
After the weekend, call it whatever you want, but the score was Red Sox 3, Yankees 0, and Xander Bogaerts had some reflection on the bulletin board material.
“I think we were talking about it a little bit early on in the series, pretty much before we came here," Bogaerts said. "I think that’s when it came out, but once we were here there wasn’t much of that, like, ‘We gotta win tonight because he said this,' or, 'He said that.’ There wasn't any of that. As soon as it came out it was like, 'Oh, alright.' You know. It was a real good series. We’ve been playing real good baseball. Having fans back in the stadium just makes it so much better, and winning makes it much better. We could have been on the other end of that, and we would have had a sour flight. But we have a real happy flight. A lot of guys chipped in, and we had everyone in the lineup contribute this series.”
Bogaerts was the one who notched the final dagger, a two-run singled in the 10th inning Sunday night that drove in the winning runs for the sweep. And, perhaps even sweeter, Gardner had a no-contact weekend - 0-for-4 with three walks and two strikeouts - and was pinch-hit for in a big spot Sunday night, one where Giancarlo Stanton struck out.
And as weekend ends, and the Yankees head to Minnesota, they're 6.5 games out of first, in fourth place in the AL East, while Boston is just one game behind Tampa Bay for the division lead and atop the Wild Card race.
“We know we’re a good baseball club," Bogaerts said. "We know we have talented players on this team, and I think this was a good statement that we made coming in here and won these three games. We were down 3-1, but I think the best part of these last two wins is we came back from behind. It’s not the best thing that you want to do as a team, but knowing that you are able to do it and on the road in this place – I mean, I’ve been for a while. I know how crazy this place can get, as you saw in the ninth inning. These guys, you can never count them out. Being able to come back ..."
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