The Giants punched their ticket to the NL Wild Card game on Wednesday with a 5-1 victory over the rival Dodgers while simultaneously knocking the St. Louis Cardinals out of the postseason.
Up next is a trip to New York to face the Mets on Wednesday night in a one-game playoff, after the Mets clinched the top Wild Card spot with their 5-3 victory over the Phillies on Saturday.
Noah Syndergaard (2.60 ERA) will take the hill for New York while Bruce Bochy will turn to one of the best postseason pitchers of all time, Madison Bumgarner. Come Wednesday night, Bumgarner will be five days removed from his last start, a 9-3 victory over Los Angeles on Friday.
The Mets won the season series against San Francisco, 4-3, outscoring them 38-30 in the seven contests. Giants’ pitching struggled in their only series at Citi Field in 2016, getting tagged for 20 runs in the three contests, while being outscored by seven runs.
Jake Peavy began the teams’ series-opening game by giving up six runs on four hits in the first two innings before Bochy yanked him. Matt Cain followed up Peavy’s performance by allowing six runs of his own, although he managed to last six innings, if only to give the over-worked bullpen a rest.
But neither of those two pitchers will start on the mound for the Giants Wednesday night, Madison Bumgarner will and unlike Peavy and Cain, Bumgarner was very sharp in his only start at Citi Field this season, as he often was when forced to stave off a series sweep.
Bumgarner blanked the Mets in that start, scattering three hits and striking out seven. He also out-pitched Syndergaard that day, who was unusually bad in surrendering four
runs in five and two-thirds innings.
Bochy and the Giants will be looking for more of the same Wednesday night in New York.
New York is 44-37 at Citi Field this season, nearly identical to their 43-38 record away from home. The Giants are 42-39 away from AT&T Park this season.