Luckily, we have had such a good year that I can afford this. I was just not feeling well enough; not 100 percent. We don't know what it is, food poisoning perhaps, but I was not feeling well enough to go race, and the decision was made to sit out this one. We will move on.

We've been a fast-starting team for most of the year. It was a comfortable feeling to get out to a big lead. The middle two quarters it seemed like our advantage was between 10 and 13 points, which was close enough, but not far enough ahead.

I can't afford not to go.

It was a really great year but it's not how we wanted it to end like this, especially after Albert hit that home run. We had a lot of momentum coming home. The crowd was into it those first couple of innings and I just didn't make the pitches in the third and the fourth innings.

It's not a pleasant feeling by any means. Last year it was tough just to try to get up for games, to get any kind of motivation going. But if you keep thinking about it and thinking about it, it starts to get to you, and that's a bad thing. You just have to keep your mind focused on your job and what you have to do to help your team win. Eventually, we'll get one.

Luckily, we not only met that, we exceeded it.