Oct. 11 J.J. Hardy and Jason Hammel postgame interview

Q. J.J., obviously runs have been very hard to come by ‑ except for that five‑run inning with the Yankees, every game has been tied virtually throughout the game.  How much of that is the great pitching, and how much of that is guys in the middle of your lineup who are struggling?

J.J. HARDY:  I mean, definitely a little bit of both.  Pitchers have been making their pitches.  You know, and maybe we're all trying to do too much.  Like you said, there hasn't been a whole lot of opportunities to score runs, so when there are those opportunities, I think we're trying a little bit too hard.

Q.  Jason, Buck said that the fact that you've only made three starts since mid‑July works to your advantage.  Would you agree with that?

JASON HAMMEL:  Sure, I've had a three‑month vacation basically.  I should be fresh and good to go for tomorrow.

Q.  How is your knee feeling?

JASON HAMMEL:  It feels good.

Q.  Jason, you expressed a lot of confidence going into Game 1, when you hadn't pitched in nearly a month.  Do you think that gives you an extra level of confidence, one, that you got back on the mound; two, you felt healthy afterwards; and three, you pitched well?

JASON HAMMEL:  Definitely.  Just to get through that healthy, I really didn't know what to expect.  I knew that I had stayed on top of what I needed to do to be prepared, and things went well.  We stayed with that same program, and the training staff has done an outstanding job to get me feeling about as good as I've felt in the last three or four months.  It's definitely going to help out tomorrow.  I'd just like to be a little bit more efficient with my pitches this time out.

Q.  Talk about the scoring inning at the end and how everyone was feeling in the dugout.  Was there a level of fatigue, frustration?  What was going on at that point?

J.J. HARDY:  Maybe a little bit of everything, frustrated, fatigued.  It's one of those, we had our back up against the wall.  It was win or go home, and we knew it.  It was intense out there, and it was nice to come through there in the 13th.

Q.  Jason, having not been here a year ago, coming here, and Game 5 of the Division Series you're facing CC Sabathia with everything on the line, I just want your emotions looking at that and what it all means to you.  This season has kind of been a star‑crossed season at times.

JASON HAMMEL:  You know, it's obviously an honor to be the one toeing the slab.  But it's been a team effort to get here.  It's been a lot of fun to watch the three months that I've been down, and the guys have pushed through, and we've played toe to toe with everybody all the way through, from the get‑go.  We're very confident that we can go ahead and win one more.

You know, like you said, it is all or nothing, but there's no reason to pressure ourselves anymore.  We've done this a million times this year.  It seems like we've played these guys to a one‑run game every time out.  It's really nothing new.

It's going to be a test for both sides, and honestly, it's just going to be a good ballgame.