Q: The crowd is probably going to be nuts again [today]. How can that affect things?

A: "There's a sense about the energy. There's no way to ignore the energy and that sound when you're on the field. And when it's your home crowd and they're pulling for you, it's even more exciting. It drives you to try to do more. And the crowd here during that wild-card game was just unbelievable. I know the guys were feeding off it. That's a tremendous advantage, especially with the fans here in Pittsburgh behind us."

Q: What's the status of your foot injury and how is that now?

A: It's fine. During that game I broke to cover home plate on a wild pitch. I felt a pop in my foot. We checked it out. It was associated with the plantar fascia. They cleared me. They said it wasn't going to get any worse. It was the kind of thing where they just treated it. It's a nonissue now.