It's an opportunity to represent Merced as well. Everybody is real proud of me being a local guy and doing real well.

I would not say I was surprised with the success I had. I have worked hard and I expect to do well. I would never have expected to be in an all-star game. That was not a goal going into the season. That was something extra.

I just want to be a little better than last year. When you are closing you don't have much of a say, you don't know how many opportunities you will get. You just have to be ready and go out and pitch in whatever situation they put me in.

That was a big year for me last year. It's probably the reason I have the opportunity to do this now.

I just kind of forgot about it until it first started coming up in the press in November.

It's nice that toward the end of the game, we've got that stability down there. Fortunately, Cortes was lights out tonight, he was unbelievable, and he set me up for the ninth.