Oct. 7 Ryan Vogelsong, Sergio Romo postgame interview

Q. How are you?

RYAN VOGELSONG:  I'm good.

(Laughter.)

Q. You've had tremendous success in the post‑season, and tonight was another one where you pitched one of those games. How do you explain that?

RYAN VOGELSONG:  I mean, I don't have a good answer for you except that I just love it. You know, every time we're here, and I'm getting ready for a game, I just think back to when I was a kid playing in the backyard and making believe I was in this situation.

I just love it. I mean, that's the only good answer I have for you.

Q. As you're starting out tonight, are you in that zone where you're feeling like this is the post‑season, this is what I'm used to, this is going to be a good night?

RYAN VOGELSONG:  A couple pitches in. You warm up, and I've had plenty of games where you warm up great and go out and pitch not good, and I've had plenty of games where I warm up bad and go out and pitch great. I warmed up half decent so I was kind of in between.

But you never know what you're going to have until you go out there in the first inning, and the first couple came out of my hand pretty good. You know, the crowd's into us, the adrenaline's running. And I was really trying to make some mechanical adjustments over the last five or six days when I wasn't pitching and I was just really focused on what I was doing with my lower half.

Just helped me get some more velocity and make my pitches better, and was just really trying to focus on that.

Q. How odd is it for you in this situation to get two runs on a ground ball and a walk, and one of the walks goes to you?

RYAN VOGELSONG:  I didn't walk. I laid down a beautiful bunt. You're missing ‑‑ don't forget that. I worked hard on that.

Nothing surprises me anymore with this team. And this time of year, you push runs across any way you can. The home runs are great, but they count the same as if you get a bases‑loaded walk.

Q. You were starting out almost exclusively with fastballs the first couple of innings. Was that the game plan? Or how you were feeling? You were hitting 94, 95 the first couple of innings.

RYAN VOGELSONG:  No, that wasn't really the game plan, but I was just feeling good and just kind of going with what was there.

Q. What can you say about Hunter Pence's catch, and what did you say to him when he came into the dugout?

RYAN VOGELSONG:  Well, I can't tell you what I said because you'll have to bleep out half of it, but that's what he's supposed to do. He makes a great catch every time I'm pitching in the post‑season at some point.

I knew it had to show up at some point, and it did. And thank goodness he did, because that's probably a triple if he doesn't catch that ball. So he's the man.

Q. Sergio, it's been an up‑and‑down year for you, but it sure is finishing the way you're used to over the last few years. What's this like for you just being part of a really huge win tonight?

SERGIO ROMO:  Any way to contribute is all I really ask for, just an opportunity to be a part of this. What we've got going on here, it's much bigger than I can ever be and much more than I can ever contribute to this game.

To be a part of this, it's pretty special for me. The ups and downs during the season, they help us grow. I've learned a lot about myself personally on and off the field.

Being able to handle certain things and in a sense being able to come through for my team today or when I'm called upon, it's very fulfilling. It's fun, too.

Q. I know there's a lot of talk, potentially, this could have been your last start with the Giants tonight. Now you get another round. How does that feel to you, to finish your game on a high note with Pence's catch and that you get to go on with your teammates?

RYAN VOGELSONG:  You know, this place is special, and especially for me being drafted by these guys and going on this long journey and being able to come back here and have success here.

This place is very special in my heart. So to have another chance to pitch here tonight in front these fans was amazing.

The fact that we're going to be back here again is special, too, and you just try and soak in as much as you can.

You never know, maybe I'll be back and we'll do it again.

Q. The way this team plays in the post‑season, it's just incredible, amazing when everyone watches it. The lights go on and you guys look different. Do you agree with that? Talk about the post‑season and your team.

SERGIO ROMO:  We're gritty and grindy. We come out ready to fight every day. We're led by Hunter Pence, and his style of play definitely emulates our approach to this game.

We come every day expecting to compete and expecting to be in every ballgame with a chance to win every ballgame.

So playoff time now, this is definitely a time when we've got to come together. And that's one thing that, like Ryan said, is very special about this place. What makes this place special is that we're very unified and we're one group. There's not one guy trying to shine brighter than the next. It's all pulling on the same rope for the same cause at the same time, and it's fun.

We're able to incorporate the fans here at home, the sold‑out crowds. It's hard to not reward them by playing hard and giving it your best.

It definitely fits the kind of game we were able to play today where we're tested and we're pushed and kind of see who wants it a little bit more. No knock on them, but maybe we wanted it just a little bit more tonight.

RYAN VOGELSONG:  I think it's all of what he said. But the guys that the organization put in this room, you know, they are here not just because you can win in the season. It's because you can get it done in the post‑season.

I really truly believe that when they are signing guys and bringing guys up, it's because they know that they are going to, one, fit in with our family we have in that room; and, two, that the lights aren't too bright at any point in time.

So credit to those guys for being able to see that.

Q. You were part of it before, and now you have a lot of people that were on the previous World Series team. But how about seeing guys like Joe Panik to Tim Hudson, kind of new guys, just seeing them have this experience?

RYAN VOGELSONG:  Well, I know personally for me, today I had a lot of thoughts about getting Hudson to the next round. You know, he's never been past the first round, and it was weighing on my mind pretty heavy today that I needed to come out here and throw a great game to get had you Huddy to the next round.

That just speaks to you about what we have in this room. It's not about you and it's not about I; it's about us.

But at the same time, like I said, we're probably not sitting here without two guys that showed up, Joe Panik being one, and Jake Peavy. Those two guys, it's hard ‑‑ it's a flip of the coin to say which one was more special down the run.

Jake came in and did great and got us here, and it's scary to think where we might be if Joe Panik didn't come up and play the way he's played.

You know, it's definitely one‑for‑all in that room, and thank goodness we got those two guys.

SERGIO ROMO:  True dat.

Overall, they have been key contributors. And Duffy, as well, he's had some big at‑bats and made some big plays. And a guy like Ishikawa has come in and done his part as well. Strickland came in and helped us in September, Susac ‑‑ we can keep going.

These guys have all found a way to contribute, and the one thing that's been very impressive about those guys, the newer additions, or any of the younger guys is how composed they are and how calm and mellow and confident amongst themselves, within themselves, and I think that's kind of like the attitude that we have in general.

We have a lot of that little hidden confidence, that little swagger that we all like to display on our own times. Without those guys, like he said, it's really scary to think where we would be.