The Yankees sent a video of the Red Sox collapse to motivate against the Astros

With their season on the line, the Yankees may be looking to their worst moment in playoff history to get motivated.

Aaron Boone said that to rally the team ahead of Game 4 of the ALCS against the Astros, Yankees director of mental conditioning Chad Bohling sent a clip of video of the Red Sox coming back from a 0 deficit -3 against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.

« We watched this video, » Boone said Sunday afternoon as his team prepared to try and keep their season alive. « We sent it to coaches and players. »

Boone added that in his pregame availability with ESPN on Sunday, Eduardo Perez Facetimed with one of the stars of that 2004 ALCS, David Ortiz.

« He put Big Papi on and I said hello to him, » Boone said. « He had advice. »

Boone declined to share the advice, but apparently that didn’t include not bringing up a brutal moment in franchise history to spark your own comeback.

As Boone noted, the Red Sox are « famously » the only team in MLB history to return after losing the first three games of an ALCS, when they came back with four straight wins over the Yankees. en route to their first World Series title since 1918.

Boone was out all that year due to the knee injury he suffered after the 2003 season – an injury he suffered while playing basketball after hitting the game-winning home run against the Red Sox to put end at ALCS 2003.

Boone’s injury led the Yankees to trade for Alex Rodriguez and the rest is history.

Although Boone did not participate in the 2004 season, he signed with Cleveland while recovering from a knee injury and was clearly recalling some aspects of the series.

« They had [Kevin] thousand [saying] « Let’s not win one, » Boone said. « I remember [Dave Roberts’] steal [in Game 4]. Game 7 [Johnny] Damon Homer… The [Curt] schilling [bloody sock] game within game 6. I hear Millar [saying]’Don’t let us win one’ and ‘Why don’t we?’

The lesson, Boone said, could be applied to this Yankee team.

« We still have time, » Boone said. “We are now as far as we can go and we are not in a good position, but you can’t get ahead of yourself either. Try to win throws and eventually win a game and put at least some pressure on them and start seeing what might happen.